India greats face backlash for their silence on Rohit Sharma’s form

After rain reduced the clash between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders to a 16-over contest, the latter put up 157/7 on the board, with Venkatesh Iyer (42 off 21 balls) and Nitish Rana (33 off 23 deliveries) being the top two contributors.

With a steep target to chase, Mumbai Indians needed a blistering start, which they did as Ishan Kishan went after the KKR bowlers, smashing them for five boundaries and two sixes in his quickfire innings of 40 off 22 deliveries. However, once Sunil Narine dismissed the young southpaw, things went downhill for the former five-time champions.

The problems of Mumbai Indians mounted as Rohit Sharma failed to get on top of the KKR bowlers. Instead, he allowed pressure to build, leading to his departure for 19 off 24 balls.

As Rohit Sharma left the run chase of the visitors in tatters, he faced brutal trolling on the microblogging site with netizens taking potshots at him with acronyms like “Vadapav” and “selfless” intent merchant.

Others labeled him a “fraud” and the world’s most “irrelevant” cricketer.

Some even questioned his appointment as Team India’s skipper for the forthcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US.

On the other hand, a few mocked Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar, and Harsha Bhogle for not commenting on Rohit Sharma’s torrid run in the IPL.

It is worth mentioning that these cricket experts have criticized Virat Kohli’s below-par strike rate in a couple of IPL games.

Moreover, Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli were engaged in an indirect war of words with the latter slamming the former for raising questions about his T20 game.

Like Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar was critical of Virat Kohli’s approach in the middle overs in IPL.

Furthermore, Sanjay Manjrekar dropped him from his 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup.

Their “agenda” against Virat Kohli returned to haunt them on X, with the Delhi-born cricketer’s admirers pointing fingers at their storied silence about Rohit Sharma’s figures in the 17th season of the IPL.

Despite his early dismissal, Rohit Sharma became the second Indian batter to complete 11,500 runs in T20 cricket after his national teammate Virat Kohli.

While Virat Kohli has 12,658 runs in the format, he isn’t the top run-maker in T20s. West Indies legend Chris Gayle is the leading scorer in the 20-over format with 14,562 runs.

Following Chris Gayle on the list are Shoaib Malik (13,360), Kieron Pollard (12,900), Virat Kohli (12,658), Alex Hales (12,319), David Warner (12,232) and Rohit Sharma (11,500).

Though Rohit Sharma scripted history on Saturday, his form in the IPL has raised concerns among fans and former cricketers.

In 13 games of the current edition of the IPL, Rohit Sharma has only managed to score 349 runs at an average of 29.08. But what’s worrying experts is that he’s struggled to get going in his last 6-7 matches.

Speaking about Rohit Sharma’s lean patch in the IPL, former India opener Wasim Jaffer pointed out Rohit Sharma’s struggles against left-arm bowlers, both pacers and spinners.

“He had his problems against left-arm spinners. The way he plants his front leg, you could always feel that anything that’s coming in will trouble him. Even right-handed bowlers have found a way to get him out. But left-armers create an angle which makes it more difficult. In the recent past, he has gone after them; he tries to slog them and sometimes walks towards the bowler to negate the swing,” Wasim Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo.

“He had his problems. I thought Trent Boult got him out nicely with an away-swinger, which he wouldn’t have expected. He mistimed a drive against Khaleel, so I won’t call it a well-planned dismissal. But there’s a loophole in his game which he knows. He tries to counter-attack and get them off their line, and that is smart from him. He tries to avoid the problem through his attacking skills,” he elaborated.

“I feel Rohit needs to take a little bit more time; he’s trying to muscle the ball too early in his innings. He can take a couple of overs to get himself in and look to time the ball rather than trying to hit it too hard,” the former Team India batter explained.

Meanwhile, former India opener Aakash Chopra stated that the Team India skipper has fallen off the radar after starting the IPL on a good note.

Besides, Aakash Chopra highlighted that Rohit Sharma has had his share of difficulties against speedsters bringing the ball into him. This tactic has paid rich dividends to them as Rohit Sharma has often fallen prey to the incoming delivery.

“I am first focusing on Rohit Sharma because in the last four games – Rajasthan, Delhi, Lucknow and the last game here vs KKR – I think his highest score is probably 11. This does not go well. He had a good start to the tournament, 300-325 runs were scored, struck a century as well at this ground but after that, he has just fallen off the radar. You don’t want that,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

“He has got out many times against left-arm seamers and here also you will get one in T Natarajan and possibly Jaydev Unadkat as well. So I am a little worried from an Indian point of view, not the Mumbai Indians’ point of view as much. I want the Indian team’s T20 captain to score runs,” the cricketer-turned-commentator added.