Rohit Sharma fans hit back at scribe after rude social media post

The Nagpur-born cricketer, who hit a century during the initial part of the cash-rich league, barely scored runs in the last 6-7 games. On Saturday, he looked out of sorts, as he was dismissed cheaply for 19 off 24 balls.

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.

Rohit Sharma’s critics didn’t even spare his wife Ritika Sajdeh as they accused the cricketer of deploying her to create a fake buzz around him.

For all those people who are unaware, Ritika Sajdeh is a top-level sports agent, who is deeply associated with Public Relations management firms, often blamed for the management of Rohit Sharma’s image despite his negative performances on the field.

Cricket lovers pointed out that though Rohit Sharma’s performance in the IPL has been below standards, the experts have kept mum on the subject, and all this was done at Ritika Sajdeh’s behest.

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.