Suryakumar Yadav and his wife were blessed with a child on May 7, fueling speculation about his availability for the game against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur on Sunday. Hardik Pandya also missed the previous game due to an injury. Former Indian cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath discussed the possibility of Hardik and Surya missing, addressing Rohit Sharma’s chances of leading.
“MI looks at a different side when Rohit scores runs. When Rohit gets going, it feels like everyone in MI gets energised. Also, if Hardik and Suryakumar Yadav don’t play the game, it’s not right to go back to Rohit Sharma as captain just because no one is there. I am not even sure if he’ll accept captaining the side,” Badrinath said on his YouTube channel.
Former New Zealand cricketer and broadcaster Simon Doull opined that the responsibility for the poor performances has to be taken right from the top of the food chain. He explained why Hardik’s captaincy has worked at the Gujarat Titans when he won in the 2022 season and has not worked at the Mumbai Indians.
“When they were in their pomp before the new teams came in, it was like a pride of lions, and Hardik was like a cub. He was a cub who played the role in the pride of lions that went away, and did a great job at GT with a franchise which he could own and control. He came back, basically tried to fight the king of the pride for the reigning job…for the king’s job, and it did not work,” Doull said on Cricbuzz after the loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
There has to be some accountability from the very top; they made that decision. They made that call they allowed him back into what was a very successful team. And now in that dressing room…in that environment, you’ve got four blokes who could all be the king. Four guys have captained their country at different stages. It is a very difficult room; it is full of alphas. Everybody will be looking around. I wonder if he would do a better job…I could do a better job. It becomes a hard environment to control,” he added.
