"We wanted to take captaincy pressure off Rohit", MI head coach Mark Boucher

Rohit Sharma, Mark Boucher, Hardik Pandya (Pic: AFP/File Pic)

Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher revealed the captaincy snub of Rohit Sharma stating that wanted to free him as a batter given that he did not have a great run in the past IPL seasons.

One of the most successful IPL franchises, Mumbai Indians bought back their star all-rounder Hardik Pandya after his successful two-year campaign with Gujarat Titans. They also named him as captain and have snubbed Rohit who led the team to five IPL titles.

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"We saw a window to get Hardik back as a player," Boucher told South Africa-based podcast 'Banter with The Boys'. "We still want him (Rohit) as a player, absolutely because we know he has some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it, without the hype of being the captain," he said.

"He probably hasn't had the best couple of seasons with the bat but he has done well as captain and I just thought after speaking with whole Mumbai Indians group, we thought may be this is an opportunity for him to step in for his last year or so," the coach added.

While the hype around an India's skipper will still be there but Boucher expects Rohit to operate more freely with the bat. "He will still captain India so that hype is going to be there but when he steps into the IPL, may be take that extra bit of pressure off him as captain and may be we get the best out of Rohit Sharma...," he hoped.

"...playing with nice smile on his face and spending time with beautiful family that he has got, there's no easy way to do it," he said.

The Mumbai-based franchise's head coach also mentioned that Rohit's busy schedule puts pressure on him.

"One thing I picked up with Roh (nickname) is that he is a fantastic guy and he has been captaining for ages and he has been doing really well and not just for MI but for India as well, he walks into a place and there are cameras on him and he is so busy," Boucher said.

Rohit enjoys a massive fan base in social media and Boucher urged fans to understand his removal was a cricketing decision. "A lot of people don't understand this in India and people get quite emotional about it...it is more of a cricketing decision that was made...it will bring the best out of Rohit as a person and a player and let him just go out there enjoy and score some good runs."

On making Pandya the new MI skipper, Boucher said he showed admirable leadership skills for GT in the previous two editions. "He is a Mumbai Indians boy and he won his first year as captain and came runner up in the second year, so there's obviously some very good leadership skills," he said.

(With PTI Inputs)