FEATURES
Follow UsRohit Sharma’s IPL career has been a case of unfulfilled potential. Amongst the seven players who have scored 5000 or more runs in the IPL, his average is the lowest and his strike rate is the third lowest.
A strike rate of just 131.2 with an average of 30.1 shouts mediocrity for a batter whose international career has been nothing short of stellar. Even in T20 internationals, by far the weakest of his three formats, he strikes at nearly 140 while averaging roughly 1.7 runs more per game.
Hence, no eyebrows were raised when people saw him playing at a strike rate of 135.02 during the powerplay at the 2023 ODI World Cup, and asked why couldn't he play in this T20 mode during the IPL, where the format demands it. And where he has also failed to meet that demand with a supply of quick runs!
However, in IPL 2024, Rohit Sharma has come prepared for all such questions and all such critics, as not only has he begun the season in great fashion, but he took it to another level with a century against the CSK at the Wankhede. Even though it came in a losing cause, Rohit’s 105(63) was the only innings from the Mumbai batting order that threatened to pull off the 207-run chase.
A lot of credit for that has to go to his uber-aggressive starts in the powerplay.
He has been part of the IPL since its inception, and has been opening for a decade, but never has he batted in the powerplay with a higher strike rate than his 177 in IPL 2024. He’s pummelling a boundary every 3.3 deliveries this season.
His next best season as an opener in the powerplay was 2016, where he scored 239 runs at 139. That should tell you how immensely awaited such a performance was from the 'Mumbai cha Raja'!
What’s been refreshing to see this season is the fact that he hasn’t necessarily attacked a lot more, but rather found more control in his aggression. The data available to us proves that. His boundary % in 2024 (77.3%) has been his best in this phase, but along with that, his ball/dismissal (31.2) is also the second-best of his IPL career.
His hundred against CSK encapsulated this much-improved aspect of his batting very aptly, as MI scored 63/0 runs in the powerplay (CSK did only 48/1), with Rohit scoring 45 of those in 25 deliveries with the help of five fours and two maximums.
He steadily played his first 10 balls, considering the early movement available for quicker bowlers at the Wankhede. But once that was subsided, he began his onslaught and scored 39 runs on his next 20 deliveries. He had dealt with both Shardul Thakur, Mustafizur Rahman and Tushar Deshpande ruthlessly until then, with the former two leaking runs at more than 10 runs/over at the end of the powerplay.
He did slow down after that as Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav’s wickets fell in quick succession, and later on, the CSK pacers bowled quite a lot of wide and slower deliveries to him. Rohit took on Jadeja in this phase of the innings, scoring three fours and a six against him.
Wickets kept falling from the other end, and Thakur and Deshpande came back quite well in their second spells. That was where the chase was lost for Mumbai, and Rohit’s innings hit a mid-life crisis as his team crumbled around him.
In the end, Rohit completed his century in 60 deliveries, built on the base of his powerplay runs. If the other batters of Mumbai had managed to score another 100 off 60 deliveries combined, then the story of the game and the Player of the Match might have been a bit different.
But just like Sachin Tendulkar’s only hundred in the IPL against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala that came in a losing cause, Rohit’s century might not receive the glory it might have deserved.
Regardless, this innings is a great sign for the Indian fans as well, as Rohit is set to captain India in the upcoming T20 World Cup, and an in-form captain is always a bonus for any side.
Rohit’s improvement in the powerplay has not only allowed him to reinvent himself as a T20 batter but also gives a lot of serendipity to both the Mumbai Indians and the Men in Blue, ahead of the showpiece event in the Caribbean and the United States of America.
