With five Indian Premier League (IPL) titles to his name leading Mumbai Indians (MI), Rohit Sharma is arguably the greatest ever captain in the T20 format. Since joining them in 2011, Sharma has completely transformed the fortunes of the franchise and made them the tournament’s most successful outfit ever.
However, on a personal note, the MI skipper has not had the best of times with the bat playing for the franchise in recent years. Despite his resounding success with the bat for the Indian team in all three formats, he has not got the number of runs in the cash-rich league. In fact, apart from the 2013 season, Rohit has never crossed the 500 mark in the league despite playing every edition since the league’s inception in 2008.
Rohit’s poor performances with the bat in IPL have left many perplexed with former Gautam Gambhir being one of them. The former Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain finds it hard to explain why the Indian team’s limited-over vice-captain has never had a 600-run season like Virat Kohli and KL Rahul.
Talking to EspnCricinfo, he said, “I don’t understand why he never had that one big IPL season ever. And I have no reason to probably even defend him. He’s a world-class player, I’ve always admired him, when he first busted onto the scene in international cricket. I said even then, that he’s the best talent India has ever produced. And then proved himself in the int. stage but it just amazes me that when he wears that MI Jersey, he’s never had a season like what VK or KL Rahul had – a 600 run season.”
Gambhir added, “And I don’t know why. Someone who’s got so much of the ability to score runs at will, doesn’t have that kind of impact in the IPL.”
Rohit Sharma’s dreams of becoming the first captain to lift the trophy in three consecutive seasons seem to be all but over as they require a near-impossible margin of victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad to pip Kolkata Knight Riders in the fourth spot to reach the playoffs.
With the bat, Rohit is the defending champions’ top-scorer this season with 363 runs in 12 innings at a mediocre average and strike rate of 30.25 and 126.92. However, in the last four seasons, he has averaged less than 30 in every campaign.
