‘Captain Hardik Hain, Lekin Raja Rohit Sharma Hi Hain’ – Actor Riteish Deshmukh opines his take on ‘Mumbai ka Raja’ debate

Riteish Deshmukh and Rohit Sharma. (Photo Source: X(Twitter)

Rohit Sharma was stripped off Mumbai Indians’ captaincy ahead of Indian Premier League 2024 as Hardik Pandya was named as the new leader for the five-time champions. Fans were agitated, and they termed Rohit as the king of Mumbai throughout the IPL 2024. The India captain led the team to T20 World Cup 2024 title and Mumbai was alive again. Bollywood actor, Riteish Deshmukh, who hails from Mumbai, gave his opinion on the king of Mumbai.

Deshmukh, while promoting his upcoming movie, quipped that though Hardik is the captain of MI, Rohit will always be the king of Mumbai. It is worth noting that under the Mumbai batter, MI won five IPL titles and are at par with their counterparts Chennai Super Kings in the trophy count. After the T20 World Cup win, the 37-year-old retired from T20Is, and his availability in franchise cricket is highly anticipated.

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The actor gave his take in a recent podcast interview with journalist Shubhankar Mishra on his YouTube channel. Fellow actor Saqeeb Saleem was also present alongside Deshmukh.

Here’s the video of Deshmukh’s conversation:

It’s a good feeling and a great responsibility: Suryakumar

Hardik was expected to lead the Indian team in T20Is after Rohit’s retirement, as the former was vice-captain in both World Cup 2023 and T20 World Cup 2024. But the selection committee named Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain and Shubman Gill as the vice-captain for the Sri Lanka tour. However, Rohit continues to lead India in Tests and ODIs and has also desired to lead the team in the Champions Trophy 2025.

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“I have always enjoyed being a leader on the field, even though I was not the captain. I have always learnt a lot of things from different captains. It’s a good feeling and a great responsibility. This relationship [His and Gambhir’s] is special because in 2014 I played under him in KKR. It was special because from there only I got opportunities. The relationship is still strong,” said Suryakumar to BCCI.