'It’s now time for him to retire': World Cup winner Virender Sehwag struggling suggests Rohit Sharma to hang up his boots in IPL

Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag reckons that it's time for Rohit Sharma to announce retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) but before he leaves, if the five-time IPL-winning captain needs to make an impact, that will become a lasting memory — he will need to change his game.

Rohit is currently struggling in the 18th edition of the IPL. He has managed to score just 82 runs in six matches so far. Rohit has just one 400-plus run out of the last five seasons, which indicates diminishing returns from his bat.

“If you look at Rohit’s IPL numbers in the last 10 years, he scored more than 400 runs only once. So he is not the kind of player who thinks that I need to score 500 or 700 runs," Sehwag told Cricbuzz. “If he thinks, he might.

“When he became the Indian captain, he said that he wanted to be the player who wants to cash in on the powerplay and take the chances, so he wanted to make all the sacrifices alone, but he is not considering the fact that at the end of the day when he is not performing, it is your legacy that is getting hurt.”

Sehwag feels that it’s time for Rohit to retire, but if he still wants to make an impact, the former MI skipper needs to make changes to his batting style.

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“Ab unke jaane ka samay hain, (It’s now time for him to retire), and before retiring, you would want to give fans something to remember you by, and not moments that force them to think, why are they not dropping him,” Sehwag said.

“Take 10 balls extra, but at least play and give yourself a chance. He has been getting out to that pull shot many times against the back of the length deliveries. So he should decide that in one innings he will not play the pull shot at all. But who will explain it to him? There should be someone telling him to play normal cricket. When I was there, Sachin, Dravid or Ganguly used to tell me to play normal cricket,” he added.

Rohit recently featured in the MI vs SRH clash where he scored 26 in 16 balls, including three sixes. Rohit will now be seen in action during MI's upcoming IPL 2025 clash against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which will take place on April 20 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.