While Rohit Sharma mostly opens the innings, Mumbai Indians might want him to bat at a different position in IPL 2025 to accommodate Ryan Rickelton at the top.
Mumbai Indians’ way of handling the big guns ahead of the IPL 2025 auction has been one of the biggest moves in the league’s history. Despite so much on-field drama and off-field controversy reports, they retained all five names within INR 75 crore, including their former captain Rohit Sharma.
Rohit looked unlikely to continue with the franchise after his captaincy snub, and the method of handing the duties to Hardik Pandya. But MI convinced him to stay without re-offering him the leadership after the team’s horror show last time.
We saw players like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant not agreeing to be retained by their franchises despite being offered a hefty sum. So, MI definitely pulled off a miracle by retaining Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah.
Rohit Sharma agreed to stay with the Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2025 for multiple reasons. The major reason was his long-time association with the franchise probably, which he has had since 2011.
He has won five IPL titles as a captain, so the team can’t really look beyond him. While he is no longer the captain, Rohit still remains in the leadership group and was seen helping Hardik Pandya in field placements last season.
Rohit was brilliant for the five-time champions and batted much better than the previous editions as a batter. He has redefined his batting in white-ball formats and goes berserk from the first ball, making him an ideal T20 batter.
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While Rohit Sharma mostly opens the innings, Mumbai Indians might want him to bat at a different position in IPL 2025 to accommodate Ryan Rickelton at the top. Rickelton is among the most aggressive white-ball batters who can provide brisk starts consistently by utilising the powerplay.
Since 2023, he has a 142.21 strike rate and a balls-per-boundary ratio of 4.83 in the first six overs. He has opened in 94.11% of innings in this timeframe, and his effectiveness will take a hit outside the opening slot.
In the three outings outside the opening position since 2023, Rickelton averages and strikes at a mere 14.33 and 113.15, respectively. The IPL is the toughest league for an overseas batter, and MI might not extract the most out of him if they bat him out of position.
Rohit Sharma has enough experience playing in the middle order in this league and even in T20Is. He has 3880 IPL runs at an average of 30.55 and a strike rate of 130.77 in 150 innings outside opening, including 28 fifties and a century.
Rohit has batted in the non-opening position 209 times overall, scoring 5332 runs at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 131.03, including 36 fifties and eight centuries. However, he hasn’t batted much in the middle order lately, which can be an issue.
Since 2019, he has only four innings as a non-opener, scoring 81 runs at a strike rate of 110.95. This shows it can be difficult for Rohit to adjust, especially at this stage in his career.
Rohit’s template has been exploiting the field restrictions and playing the role of an aggressor, while his spin game is also not as good as it used to be. Hence, risking him in the middle order can backfire, so how the team uses him in IPL 2025 will be interesting.
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