Rohit Sharma's unclarified no-word post on Mumbai Indians adds fuel to speculations on future

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For the second time in three seasons, the Mumbai Indians recorded their worst-ever performance in an Indian Premier League (IPL) edition. They finished bottom of the table with just four wins in 14 matches. While Hardik Pandya's captaincy and the performance of all the players, barring Jasprit Bumrah, who was the only standout cricketer, will be in focus as the franchise looks ahead to the mega auction for the 2025 IPL season, the major question revolves around the future of Rohit Sharma in MI colours.

Discussions around Rohit's potential exit from Mumbai Indians began when he was shockingly removed from captaincy ahead of IPL 2024, and the franchise named Hardik as his replacement. The speculations remained through the course of the season as reports claimed that all was not well between Hardik and Rohit in the dressing room. And it reached its peak earlier this month when a video shared by Kolkata Knight Riders on social media went viral where Rohit, in conversation with KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, indicated that he wasn't happy at the franchise and that it was his last season with MI.

Although the video was deleted by KKR instantly before franchise CEO Venky Mysore dismissing the speculations as a “storm in a tea cup”, with MI or Rohit not making any official statement, the rumours remained.

On Sunday, Rohit added fuel to the discussions after he shared a no-word post on Mumbai Indians. It only had four pictures - of MI fans, him at the training nets, one where he is signing autographs at the Wankhede and one with the entire squad. The caption only had an emoticon of a blue heart.

‘What's next for Rohit Sharma?'

Rohit had a forgettable second half of the IPL 2024 season with the bat, where he failed to go past 20 in seven innings, but eventually ended his campaign with a fiery half-century which made him the team's top-scorer in the edition. Overall, he amassed 417 runs with comprises a ton and two fifties. He also received a standing ovation from the Wankhede crowd following his dismissal in MI's last match this season, which indicated that fans believed it was his final appearance in Mumbai colours in the IPL.

Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher later said that he had a chat with Rohit immediately after the game against Lucknow Super Giants to know about his future.

“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 on Friday.

“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 added.