"Once the rain is over, an umbrella becomes a burden to everyone. That's how loyalty ends when benefits stop.- ANONYMOUS," read Kieron Pollard's Instagram story from Sunday morning.
The veteran West Indies all-rounder's cryptic story that touched the issue of "loyalty" once again brought focus back to the captaincy change in IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.
Kieron Pollard's Insta story
Speculations are rife after batting coach Pollard, a legend of the five-time champions, put up the story ahead of the season. Mumbai Indians had stripped veteran Rohit Sharma of captaincy after they bought star Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans. A former MI player, Hardik had led the Titans to glory in 2022 and made it to the finals in 2023.
Many fans wondered of the former explosive batter was planning to cut his ties with MI.
The story so far...
Now what???
— msd_stan (@bdrijalab) January 7, 2024
Pollard is no longer MI's batting coach??👀👀
What else is Hardik pandya cooking after returning back to MI? pic.twitter.com/mJOeE29D1d
In December, Hardik Pandya was named the captain of Mumbai Indians for the upcoming season -- a month after the transfer was completed. It was then reported that Mumbai Indians, who have one of the most systematic team-building processes, have roped in Pandya with a long-term plan in mind as there will be a mega auction in 2025 and every franchise will try to build a new team with a young core.
Kieron Pollard instagram story about Loyalty 🫂 @KieronPollard55 @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/hzsMpgock3
— HITMAN45CULTS (@Hitman45Cults) January 7, 2024
The significant development also raised questions about Rohit's future in the shortest format.
Hardik contributed to Mumbai's glorious run in the IPL, playing a key role in the team's triumph between 2015 and 2021 before leaving to captain the Titans. He led them to the title on its IPL debut in 2022 and to a runners-up finish earlier this year.
A similar cryptic Instagram story by ace seamer Jasprit Bumrah had made news in December. “Silence is sometimes the best answer,” Bumrah's cryptic message on Insta read.
Suryakumar Yadav, another pivotal player in the current Mumbai Indians set-up, had tweeted a broken heart emoji after the news of Rohit Sharma's replacement arrived. It was under Rohit-Sharma's 11-year-old tenure as the skipper that both Suryakumar and Hardik made their Mumbai Indians debuts.
