Follow UsRohit Sharma has always underperformed in the Indian Premier League (IPL). That’s the narrative for the five-time IPL winning captain. Very few care about the trophies he has won when they assess Rohit the batter in the IPL.
It’s a brutal world, and in T20 cricket, even more so. If you don’t bat like Chris Gayle or Heinrich Klaasen, you’ll be questioned every minute of your existence as a batter.
Last season, Rohit scored 332 runs for MI at a strike rate of 132.8. It was not spectacular — not at all — but he was still Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain. Come the ODI World Cup in October, he unveiled a new avatar of powerplay aggressor and suddenly started batting in a much more liberated fashion.
But while he was rising, wearing one kind of blue, the other blue, mixed with gold, shocked him. Come the 2024 season, Rohit Sharma was no more the skipper of Mumbai Indians (MI). Hardik Pandya was the new skipper, and all Pandya got in response from the huge and loyal MI fan base was boos and hate.
Under these circumstances, Rohit Sharma just had the best IPL season with the bat since 2016, scoring 417 runs at a strike rate of 150 — his highest ever in IPL history.
However, even here, it wasn’t a straightforward journey.
While his team was going through one of its toughest times in the IPL as a franchise, he was having a blast in the first six matches of 2024. He scored 261 runs in 156 deliveries at a strike rate of 167.3. This also included his second IPL hundred (105*) against arch-rivals Chennai.
He started at a strike rate of 145 in his first 10 balls and then exploded towards the end of the powerplay with a strike rate of 210 in the next 10 balls.
But even that purple patch was ripped off soon, as in the last eight matches (including today’s innings against Lucknow), he struck at only 127 while averaging 19.5.
However, in MI’s last game of this auction cycle at the Wankhede, Rohit played an innings that reminded him not only of the purple patch at the beginning of this season but also of his new-found aggressive intent at the start, which has redefined him as a batter.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) scored 214, and Rohit and his opening partner Dewald Brevis had a big task on their hands. Maybe that provoked Rohit to bat sublimely, or maybe it was the prospect of him playing his last game in Mumbai colours. But regardless, his innings today felt like an encapsulation of the best of him.
There were the glorious pulls, of course. And it came out off his seventh ball only, as Matt Henry bowled a delivery that was just a touch short and angling into his stumps. Still, Rohit opened his stance, brought his hands down like only he could, and pulled the delivery with disdain towards the square leg boundary for a maximum.
That shot was the gong that announced the arrival of Mumbai cha raja (Mumbai's king), and in a blue sea that worships him, he batted like an absolute king.
After the pull, there was also the 'make room and hit it above and beyond the infield on the off-side' shots that became a trademark of sorts in the ODI World Cup last year. He continued playing shots and got even more aggressive after the rain break.
He brought up his fifty by dancing down the track, getting closer to the length of the ball, freeing his arm, and launching the ball into the stands with freedom. It was a shot befitting the majesty of a king, and in this avatar, Rohit was no less than that.
He continued his boundary hitting against Ravi Bishnoi’s leg-spin as well, even using the spinner's pace to guide the ball to the boundary. It’s worth noting that leg-spin is the bowling type he averages the least against in IPL history.
Eventually, Bishnoi got him out, but his 68 runs at a strike rate of 178.94 kept MI in the chase until he was at the crease, as they were 97/3 in 10.5 overs.
However, before that, Rohit had done what he had hoped to at the beginning of the day— give MI fans a reason to smile in their last match of the season, in which their team will take the wooden spoon.
We don’t know if Rohit Sharma will return in Mumbai Indians colours. But we know that this is certainly not the end of Rohit Sharma, the T20 batter. This one innings and season has ensured that.