Former Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma looked visibly emotional after failing once again in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He failed to perform a good knock for his team against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). led by Pat Cummins in the 55th minute. competition match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday, May 6.
Rohit Sharma entered the 2024 Indian Premier League without the burden of captaincy as Mumbai Indians (MI) decided to replace him as captain with all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who was traded from Gujarat Titans (GT).
Although the burden of leadership was no longer on Rohit Sharma’s shoulders, he had enormous expectations of achieving his best performance as a batsman in the Indian Premier League. Notably, Rohit has been a highly successful captain for MI as he has won 5 IPL championships, but his performance with the bat has been below average in the cash-rich league for a while now.
Rohit Sharma had a perfect start to the competition as he played back-to-back brilliant innings and looked in great touch, and even smashed a century against Chennai Super Kings, albeit in a losing cause.
In the first 7 matches for Mumbai Indians (MI), Rohit Sharma scored 297 runs at an average of 49.5 and a strike rate of 164.1. However, his form took a 180 degree turn and he failed miserably in the next five matches, scoring just 33 runs at an average of 6.6 and a strike rate of 94.3.
In the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Rohit Sharma scored just 4 runs off 5 balls, before being dismissed by Pat Cummins. On the second ball of the fourth over, Cummins bowled a long delivery on middle and Rohit looked to pick it up and bowl it behind square. He connected very well with the ball and it went straight into the air from the leading edge. Heinrich Klaasen made no mistake and completed the easy catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma.
Notably, this was the fourth time that Pat Cummins dismissed Rohit Sharma in T20s. In total, in 9 innings, he scored 57 runs in 41 balls against Cummins at an average of 14.25.
Watch – Rohit Sharma seen crying
Rohit sharma crying 😭 pic.twitter.com/EnUwKIz4kZ
-Krishn_editx (@Krishn_editx) May 6, 2024
Ahead of the MI vs SRH clash, former India opener Aakash Chopra expressed concern over Rohit Sharma’s form and expected a good performance against the Hyderabad-based franchise.
“I am focusing on Rohit Sharma first because in the last four matches (Rajasthan, Delhi, Lucknow and the last match here against KKR) I think his highest score is probably 11. This is not going well. He had a good start in the In between 300 and 325 runs were scored in the tournament, he also scored a century on this field, but after that he just disappeared from the radar. You don’t want that,” he said.
“He has come out many times against left-arm seamers and here you will also find one in T Natarajan and possibly in Jaydev Unadkat as well. So I am a bit worried from an Indian point of view, not from a Mumbai Indians point of view. “I want the Indian team’s T20 captain to score runs,” the former India opener added.