Rohit Sharma continues his struggle in IPL playoffs, has an average below 10 and strike rate below 100

Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma has struggled to score big or quickly in IPL playoff encounters over the years

SportsTak

• Wed • 24 May 2023

Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma has had an inconsistent run in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. After showing flashes of brilliance with a half-century against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in must-win encounter, Rohit failed to make a mark in the eliminator clash against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at MA Chidambaram Stadium. Rohit lost his wicket to Naveen-ul-Haq in the powerplay overs. While Rohit has struggled with bat this season, it is not the first time he has failed in playoffs encounters (excluding the final).

Rohit’s horrendous IPL playoffs numbers

Including the 11-run knock against LSG, Rohit has scored just 114 runs from 13 playoffs encounters at an average of 9.5 and a strike rate of 86.4. The most he has scored in a playoffs game is 26.

How Rohit got out in IPL 2023 eliminator

The MI opener faced four dot deliveries in the first over. In LSG skipper Krunal Pandya’s second over, Rohit hit a massive six over long-on and then swept him away for a boundary towards deep square leg. Pandya then introduced Afghan pacer Naveen-ul-Haq. Rohit shimmied down the wicket to loft the ball over covers but failed in doing so. Ayush Badoni took an easy catch as Naveen drew first blood.

Rohit getting out too early, too often

The 36-year-old has lost his wicket within powerplay overs 10 times in the ongoing season. Only Gujarat Titans (GT) wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha has got out more times (12) during fielding restrictions.

Rohit’s Duck Tales

Rohit bagged two consecutive ducks earlier this month. In a recent interview with Jio Cinema, the experienced campaigner accepted that he does not believe in the anchor role in T20 format until and unless the team has lost too many wickets early on in the innings.

"If you see, in Chennai (vs Chennai Super Kings) and before that in Mohali (vs Punjab Kings), I got out zero. In the third game, against RCB, I stepped down the first ball. I thought I have failed thrice in as many attempts but it is fine, this is what I am going to do," he had said.