Mumbai Indians (MI) are one of the most successful Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises and have clinched five IPL titles since the commencement of the cash-rich league. Notably, all five triumphs for MI have come under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. The Mumbai-based side will now have a chance to make the trophy count six as they reached the playoffs of IPL 2023 and will take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Eliminator of the ongoing tournament.
In all these years of a successful stint, MI produced many champions in the form of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, and Suryakumar Yadav, who even went on to represent India at the international level. However, Hardik was released by the Mumbai-based franchise in 2021, and he’s now serving as the skipper of Gujarat Titans (GT).
In a recent interview with Robin Uthappa, Hardik talked about his time with MI and reflected on the success of the team. The right-handed batter compared MI to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and said that he’s more inspired by the philosophy of (CSK)
“There are two kinds of success (ways) you can get. One is get the best people possible, from A to B, which I felt MI had.. those years where we won. Or, have the best environment possible for you to win, which has been the CSK type where no matter who the players are, they find the comfort and the team get the best out of them,” said Hardik on Jio Cinema.
“That was more inspiring for me to get, not the best players, but the best environment,” he added.
The remark by Hardik soon became a major talking point and triggered many MI supporters. Now Rohit has cleared the buzz of MI being the ‘team of stars’ and cited that MI creates champions instead. In the process, the MI skipper also named two potential superstars for MI who could be next Bumrah and Hardik.
“It’s going to be same story as (Jasprit) Bumrah, Hardik, and all these guys. That’s going to be the same story with boys like Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera,” said Rohit on Jio Cinema.
“You watch it in the next two years. Then people will say, ‘Arey, ye toh superstar team hai’ (This is a team of superstars). Arey ham bana rahe hain unko baithke idhar yaar, ham jaa rahe hain, hamaari team jaa rahi hai, dekh rahi hai inko (First of all, we are creating superstars here, man. Our team is discovering these guys, scouting them). These 2 guys are going to be big stars for us, and for India,” he added.
