MI Lose 4 Lakh Followers After Replacing Rohit Sharma With Hardik Pandya As IPL Captain

Rohit Sharma during IPL 2023 (AP)

Mumbai Indians franchise lost over four lakh followers on Twitter an hour after replacing decade-old captain Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya.

The franchise confirmed Pandya's ascension as the new leader on December 15, mere weeks after acquiring the star all-rounder from Gujarat Titans on IPL 2024 retention day. The decision was met with severe criticism from across the Mumbai Indians' cricketing spectrum, especially from the fervent fanbase of Mumbai Indians' zealot Rohit Sharma.

Mumbai Indians lose followers on social media

It seems like a number of Mumbai Indians fans have lost interest in the franchise, considering over four lakhs of them instantly unfollowed them on X (formerly Twitter) mere moments after team veteran Rohit Sharma was replaced by Hardik Pandya.

In the space of just an hour on December 15 evening, the number of Mumbai Indians followers on the microblogging site declined from 8.6 million to 8.2 million.

Rohit Sharma's demotion comes on the backdrop of the Mumbai Indians' underwhelming run in the last three IPL editions. The franchise won successive titles in 2019 and 2020, respectively, to become the most successful team in the history of the tournament (now levelled with CSK).

Each of Mumbai Indians' five IPL triumphs came under Sharma's leadership before the team's three-year trophy drought prompted the management to opt with Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya.

Pandya, after spending years at the Mumbai Indians camp, joined newcomers Titans ahead of IPL 2022 and led them to a title win in their first tournament appearance and in his maiden leadership assignment itself. The all-rounder also led them to another appearance in the final the following season in 2023, where they fell just short of CSK in the title clash.

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