MI lose 4.5 lakh Instagram followers within a day after removing Rohit Sharma as captain

The cricketing world has been buzzing with new updates regarding IPL 2024 in the past few weeks as several player trades and releases have made headlines. However, the hottest topic has been Hardik Pandya’s trade to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans right after the player’s retention deadline. In another shocking move, MI have appointed Pandya as captain of the side replacing Rohit Sharma who led them to five IPL titles in 11 years of captaincy.

Notably, Sharma is the joint-most successful captain in the history of the IPL along with MS Dhoni who’s also led Chennai Super Kings to five IPL titles in 14 years of leadership.  However, the major change in the leadership hasn’t gone down well with MI fans who’ve begun unfollowing the team’s social media handles.

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The official Instagram handle of Mumbai Indians has lost around four lakh followers ever since appointing Pandya as their skipper. Clearly, the decision hasn’t gone down well with the Mumbai fans who wanted Sharma to continue leading the franchise in the upcoming season and take them to unsurmountable heights with his shrewd leadership.

Rohit Sharma led Mumbai to five titles within eight years

The X account of Mumbai Indians has also met the same fate with a large number of fans unfollowing them in a short span of time. There’s a widespread opinion among fans that Rohit deserved to step down from captaincy on his own terms having lifted the side from its darkest phase in 2013. The Nagpur-born batter was handed over the leadership duties midway through the season in 2013 after MI had lost three out of the first six matches and led them to their first-ever title win.

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From their onwards, there was no looking back for Mumbai as they went on to win five titles in eight years and became the most successful franchise in the history of the league. Hence, Pandya has massive shoes to fill in place of Rohit and will have the burden of taking MI’s legacy forward.