He scored eight runs against GT.
Former India batter Virendra Sehwag took a dig at Rohit Sharma for not being able to put up 600-700 runs in any edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) so far. Last night against the Gujarat Titans (GT), the Mumbai Indians (MI) opener was dismissed after making eight runs from four deliveries. In the last match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), he got out for a duck.
In Rohit’s 18-year-long IPL career, his highest runs in a season came in 2013, when he notched up 538 in 19 matches. Notably, Rohit was handed over the captaincy from Ricky Ponting in the middle of the IPL 2013 season, and he led the team to their first-ever IPL title. Since then, the franchise has won five IPL trophies under his leadership.
However, Sehwag criticised Rohit for not setting the stage on fire with his willow. During a Cricbuzz show, he stated that it’s too late for the fans to expect a high-scoring season from Rohit. Since he couldn’t do the job in all these years, he cannot do that now at the last stage of his cricketing career.
“Where is that season? Isn’t it too late for this type of season to come (laughs)? We are also his fans, but we are just asking where the season of 600-700 runs is. When has Rohit Sharma done that? It has been 18 years, when it has not happened in 18 years, how can you hope for this to happen now when he is at the last part of his career?”, added Sehwag.
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Former player Manoj Tiwary compared Rohit’s stats with another star India batter Virat Kohli. He felt that Rohit could have some brilliant IPL seasons with the bat, but somehow he fails to do that. The 2012 IPL champion acknowledged Rohit’s 417 runs in the last season, including a 105 not-out knock against arch-rivals CSK.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) Virat Kohli has crossed the 500-run mark seven times. Kohli’s highest aggregate came in 2016, where he notched up 973 in 16 matches to take his team into the finals. King Kohli also put up a brilliant 741 runs in 15 matches to win the Orange Cap in IPL 2024.
“It’s high time Rohit Sharma got back among the runs. The ability of a player like Rohit Sharma is not 400. Last season, he scored 400, he hit a century, that’s fine. But where is the 800-900 season? Rohit is just not able to have these types of seasons. Why does Virat Kohli always score? You tell me. It’s equally good. It’s equally good, but there should be a season where Rohit scores 600-700”, opined Tiwary.
The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player also added that he expects Rohit to win the Orange Cap at least once. Furthermore, he stated that the MI management has retained Rohit despite the conflicts about sacking him from the captaincy overnight. But if he continues with his poor form, he will eventually let down his team.
“He should take his orange cap with him. That’s how it should be. I expect a lot from him. That’s why he was retained. Because of last year’s drama and controversy, it felt like Rohit would leave because there were a lot of small audio clips. Despite that, he was retained. But since there were no runs in the last two matches, the atmosphere must have been mixed up”, he said.
MI have lost both their matches this season so far. They will next take on KKR tomorrow at the Wankhede Stadium.
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