NEW DELHI: Rohit Sharma’s scores in the ongoing Indian Premier League season read: 0, 8, 13, 17, 18, and 28. The Mumbai Indians stalwart, who has led the franchise to five IPL titles, is currently enduring a rough patch with the bat.
On Thursday, skipper Hardik Pandya brought Rohit in as an Impact Player against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but the veteran batter’s struggles continued. He managed just 26 runs before being dismissed by Pat Cummins.
In six innings so far, Rohit has scored only 82 runs at a disappointing average of 13.66.
His lean run has drawn sharp criticism from former India opener Virender Sehwag, who didn’t mince words. Sehwag cautioned Rohit about protecting his legacy and even suggested that it might be time for him to consider stepping away from the format.
“If you look at Rohit’s IPL numbers in the last 10 years, he scored more than 400 runs only once. So he is not the kind of player who thinks that I need to score 500 or 700 runs. If he thinks, he might. When he became the Indian captain, he said that he wanted to be the player who wants to cash in on the powerplay and take the chances, so he wanted to make all the sacrifices alone, but he is not considering the fact that at the end of the day when he is not performing, it is your legacy that is getting hurt,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
“Ab uska jaane ka time aa gaya, (It’s already time for him to retire), and before retiring, you would want to give fans something to remember you by, and not moments that force them to think, why are they not dropping him,” he said.
“Take 10 balls extra, but at least play and give yourself a chance. He has been getting out to that pull shot many times against the back of the length deliveries. So he should decide that in one innings he will not play the pull shot at all. But who will explain it to him? There should be someone telling him to play normal cricket. When I was there, Sachin, Dravid or Ganguly used to tell me to play normal cricket,” he added.
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A disciplined performance from the bowling unit, spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah and captain Hardik Pandya, powered Mumbai Indians to a four-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a low-scoring clash at the Wankhede Stadium.
Will Jacks emerged as the standout performer for Mumbai, picking up two key wickets and contributing a crucial 36 with the bat to steer the team to their second consecutive victory in IPL 2025.
This marked Mumbai Indians’ third win of the season, taking their tally to six points and lifting them to seventh place in the standings—breaking free from the congestion of teams stuck at four points near the bottom. Sunrisers Hyderabad, meanwhile, remain on four points.
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
