CSK’s fiery response to reports of approaching MI for Rohit, Surya and Bumrah’s trade

All is not well at Mumbai Indians, it is what reports in social media have claimed, especially amid the cryptic posts from Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, respectively, on the Hardik Pandya announcements that the franchise made – captaincy preceded by his trade from Gujarat Titans – over the last one month.

Some reports even claimed that the likes of Rohit Sharma, whose captaincy tenure at MI was brought to an end after a glorious 10 years which comprised of five IPL titles, and few others like Bumrah and Surya were not happy with the change in captaincy. The reports came with a hint that there could be a possible trade that might land at least one among Rohit, Surya or Bumrah to a different team.

Mumbai Indians categorically denied the rumours and also discarded claims that few franchises approached them for trade on Rohit. One of the teams reportedly were Chennai Super Kings, but franchise CEO Kasi Viswanathan crushed the talk with a strong response.

Speaking to Cricbuzz on the sidelines of the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on Tuesday, Viswanathan explained that neither do CSK believe in the principle of trading players nor do they have players to actually carry on a trade with fellow five-time IPL winners.

“We don’t trade players as a principle and we also don’t have players to trade with Mumbai Indians. We have not approached them and we don’t intend to either,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mumbai head coach Mark Boucher also brushed aside the reports of a rift within the MI camp after the announcement of Hardik as the new skipper. The former South Africa international admitted that while he understands the emotion surrounding the big call, he emphasised that this was “purely a transitional phase”.

“Well, we have had conversations with certain team members and the leadership within the group. I think it’s purely just a transition phase. It’s the game of cricket. Mumbai Indians move forward. Rohit has been fantastic for us. He’s been a stalwart for Mumbai Indians, he has done really well. This is just a decision that is made by us to move forward and get into a transition phase with the new captain and it’s, you know, take all the motions aside and all that type of stuff. That’s simply what it is all about,” the coach said.

“I have heard rumours via social media, all that type of stuff, but I’m not really into social media stuff. As far as I can say it was handled by us in the best way possible. We understand the emotions around everything, but this is purely a transitional phase for Mumbai Indians. And decisions were made by us to move forward and that’s where we are at the moment.”