Rohit Sharma’s batting form since IPL 2017 – Cause of concern for MI?
The past three years have been quite special for Rohit Sharma who has seen new highs and many records in the Indian colours. At the same time, Rohit led his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians to two titles and extended his trophy cabinet as captain to four. However, at the same time, Rohit has failed to impress with his own performances for the franchise.
The depth in the MI line-up ensured his struggles did not affect the team’s performances. Since the start of the 2017 season, Rohit has scored mere 1024 runs from 45 innings at an average and strike rate of 125.60 and 127.52 respectively which is quite below his career numbers. During these three years, most of the Indian batsmen had an average over 35 and strike rate close to 140.
Rohit’s sixes/innings rate was also quite poor during this period as he hit only 31 maximums in 45 innings. In the same span, he had smashed 27 sixes across 17 innings in red-ball cricket. In the 2017 season, Rohit came straight after spending about six months recovering from an injury. He struggled with consistency especially while facing the wrist spinners and ended up with only 333 runs; the first time he missed reaching 350 runs in an IPL season.
The following season was an even bigger disaster for Rohit with the bat where he scored only 283 runs at 23.83 average. Rohit kept shifting his batting position through the season while the MI team lost many close encounters. The 2019 season was a better one where he aggregated 405 runs across 16 innings. However, his strike rate and average were below 130 and 30 respectively. The 2019 edition was the first time Rohit opened the innings in all matches for the MI team.
In most of the matches, he got 20-30 runs and fell trying to accelerate post the powerplay. The MI skipper’s average in the shortest format, even for India, is quite low but his strike rate in the last 3-4 years has been in the high 140s. Hence, for Sharma to be successful in the IPL, he has to open the batting and strike freely as he does in T20Is for India. It is the reason why he holds the record for most T20I fifties coming in less than 25 balls. In the IPL, Rohit never scored a fifty taking fewer than 25 balls.
