[Watch] Rohit Sharma hits MI nets for the first time after being removed as captain ahead of IPL 2024

Mumbai Indians won five IPL titles under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy.

Former Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma has joined the team’s training camp for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) on Monday, March 18. After taking a short break following five-match test series against England at home, the five-time IPL-winning captain went straight to business and hit the nets to work on his batting.

Prior to the IPL 2024 mini-auction, MI traded in Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans (GT) in an all-cash deal. Pandya was associated with GT for two years following him being released by MI before IPL 2022 mega auction. Pandya won the IPL 2022 while captaining GT in their inaugural edition and then led the team to finals in subsequent season in 2023 as well.

Soon after returning to MI, Hardik was named as the new captain of the franchise, replacing Rohit Sharma, who had led the team to a record five IPL titles during his leadership. This change in MI captaincy also sparked many controversies in the cricket fraternity, with some accepting this new change while others not favoring it. 

Rohit hits MI net for the first time since being removed from IPL captaincy

After joining the MI camp ahead of the showpiece event, Rohit was seen practicing and doing some power hitting. In a 30-second video shared by the MI franchise across its social media platforms, the Hitman can be seen playing some brilliant shots, including his trademark pull shot.

Here is the viral video:

The five-time champions will play their first IPL 2024 game against last year’s runners-up, GT, on March 24 at the Narendra Modi International Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad. Ahead of their opening fixture, MI have been dealing with numerous injuries.

Star batter Suryakumar Yadav and pacer Dilshan Madhushanka might miss the first game of the prestigious tournament due to their respective injuries. While Australian left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff has been ruled out of the tournament with broken leg. The franchise roped in England left-arm pacer Luke Wood as Behrendorff’s replacement at his base price of 50 lakhs.

MI updated IPL 2024 squad:

Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Dewald Brevis, Tim David, N Tilak Varma, Arjun Tendulkar, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Nehal Wadhera, Shams Mulani, Vishnu Vinod, Piyush Chawla, Luke Wood, Romario Shepherd, Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madushanka, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Thushara, Anshul Kamboj, Naman Dhir, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma.

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