A lot was expected from Mumbai Indians icon Rohit Sharma as he returned to the team after missing the previous Indian Premier League (IPL) game due to an injury. Rohit, who has featured as an Impact Substitute from the bench since the start of the campaign, continued his poor run of form, scoring just 17 runs from 9 balls before being dismissed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Yash Dayal. When asked about MI’s concerns at the top of the batting order and Rohit Sharma’s dismissal, coach Mahela Jayawardene refused to mince words.
The Mumbai Indians head coach admitted that the team is struggling in the powerplays, both from the batting and bowling standpoint at the moment.
“The powerplay is a concern for us with the ball and the bat. In the last few games as well, we were leaking too many runs with the ball in the powerplay as well. We got an early wicket today as well – first over – but then they counter-punched, played some good shots, and we just did not react well to that. These are the margins and then they had a big sixth over, which really hurt us in that powerplay,” Jayawardene said in the press conference after the match.
Since IPL 2024, Rohit has struggled a lot against left-arm pacers in the IPL. In fact, he has been dismissed most times by a left-arm pacers over this period. As for statistics, the Hitman was dismissed seven times out of the 17 innings against left-arm seamers.
Jayawardene, when asked about concern around Rohit’s dismissal and the lack of runs, decided to credit Dayal more for the delivery he bowled.
“Obviously for right-handed batsman left armers, it is a natural thing for a lot of opening batsman and a lot of the right-handed batsman. It’s been there for many years, I can remember many teams doing the same thing, so it’s just a natural angle and then creating that space. But yeah, I’m sure Rohit’s been working on it, he’s been practicing hard and he’s a very experienced player,” said Jayawardene.
“I’m sure that’s not the thing, he was trying to give us a good start and he played some really good shots. Yash bowled a good ball, it was late swing and fuller got through Rohit’s defence. So I think when you have played the game for that long, I think you need to sometimes keep to the bowlers as well. I wouldn’t read into that too much, but yeah, I mean it’s something that I’m sure that he will work hard on it,” the Sri Lanka great asserted.
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