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There was a video of Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma sharing a hug on their off day before the match against Delhi Capitals on Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium, and the two shared a wholesome moment after MI secured their first win in IPL 2024. Yet their respective tweets after the 29-run win at home against Rishabh Pant’s side sparked fresh speculation among fans about a rift in the MI dressing room.
Having lost all their first three matches, Mumbai put their forgettable start to IPL 2024 behind them with a stellar win against Delhi on Sunday. Rohit played a crucial role up the order scoring 49 off 27 while stitching an 80-run opening stand before it was a show of brute power from Romario Shepherd, who clobbered 39 runs in just 10 balls, including 32 runs in the final over against Anrich Nortje as MI amassed 234 for five.
Delhi did keep themselves alive in the monumental chase riding on the back of Prithi Shaw’s 66 off 40 and Tristan Stubbs’ fiery 25-ball 71. However, Gerald Coetzee cut short their hopes with his 4 for 34 as Delhi were restricted to 205 for eight.
Following the big win, Hardik put out a tweet saying: “We’re up and running,” which comprised of pictures from the match against DC. Rohit did the same, with the caption: “Off the mark.”
However, eagle-eyed fans highlighted that while Hardik’s post had the picture of Rohit, en route to his 80-run opening stand with Ishan Kishan, the former MI captain’s tweet did not have the image of the incumbent skipper. And it subsequently sparked a fresh speculation among fans of a rift in the MI dressing room. Here are some if the tweets…
Fan speculations are unlikely to end anytime soon unless Mumbai Indians’ owners, along with Rohit and Hardik, directly address them and officially bury all rumours of a rift between the two senior players in the dressing room.
Last week, former Australia cricketer Matthew Hayden spoke on similar lines, where he admitted that he understood the point of view of the MI fans, adding that there is “no getting around” what feel about Hardik, given their love and support for Rohit.
“See the fans are the biggest stake holders in this and they often don’t have the politics, the insights, but they want to understand this, they love Rohit Sharma. There’s going to be no getting around that. So potentially how it could have been handled little bit differently is to ensure that Rohit is on board with it, the franchise is communicating it out to the fans, through social media platforms that announce a lot of these things and they actually carry a lot of weight,” he told Star Sports.
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