'I asked what's next for Rohit Sharma? He said…': MI head coach has immediate discussion on India captain's IPL future

Rohit Sharma's future at Mumbai Indians was discussed after their last IPL 2024 match against LSG, said MI head coach Mark Boucher.

Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher said he spoke to Rohit Sharma immediately after their last IPL 2024 match against the Lucknow Super Giants, which they lost by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, to learn about his future plans. Despite tapering off in the second half of the season, Rohit ended as MI's top-scorer with 417 runs, including a hundred and a half-century. He also got a standing ovation from a packed Wankhede crowd, indicating that even the fans fear that they might have just seen the last of Rohit in MI colours.

The speculations have been going on for quite some time now. It got wind after Rohit was apparently heard stating to Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, about nothing going right at his "home" MI. The audio wasn't that clear but Rohit didn't mention anything about MI but his words made many believe that he was unhappy about the state of affairs at MI.

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To top it all, there were rift reports between Rohit and new captain Hardik Pandya. The differences reflected on MI's performance. They finished last on the points table with just four wins in 14 matches. This was their second bottom-place finish in the last three years.

"To be honest, there hasn't been many conversations about Rohit's future at all. I spoke to him last night or the night before, just to do a little review of the season," Boucher told the media after MI's 10th defeat this season on Friday.

The former South African keeper-batter said he asked the tough question to Rohit, to which the Indian captain replied "T20 World Cup."

"I said, 'what's next for Rohit Sharma?' He said to me, 'the (T20) World Cup'. (And) that's perfect. That's all I need to know about what Rohit Sharma's future is. For me, he's a master of his own destiny. It's a big auction next season. Who knows what's going to happen? We'll just have to take each day as it comes," he said.

'A season of two halves for Rohit Sharma': Boucher

Boucher said Rohit had a season of two halves as a batter and despite finishing as highest run-scorers for MI, the former skipper would be disappointed with the outcome. "It was almost a season of two halves for him. He started off really well, was hitting the ball sweet in the nets, got a great hundred against CSK as well," Boucher said.

"We honestly thought that he was on a great path for us to go out there and get some good runs for us. Unfortunately, it's just the nature of T20 as well," he added.

The MI head coach said Rohit, who finished IPL 2024 on a high with a 68 off 38, continued to adapt to the new way of playing as an aggressive opener. "He went out there trying to be aggressive, which is the new way of playing as an opening batter. He got a couple of low scores, which unfortunately didn't help us in that particular situation as well," he said. "But he finished off with a fantastic knock — a competition of two halves for him. If you had to ask Ro, he'd probably say that it was an average season for him, especially with the start that he got off to."

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