Former England captain Michael Vaughan came up with a cheeky suggestion for Mumbai Indians (MI) opener Rohit Sharma to get going in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Vaughan said that maybe Rohit should pretend that he is wearing the Indian jersey instead of MI, a team he led to IPL title five times.
The suggestion came after Siraj was clean bowled by Gujarat Titans' (GT) Mohammed Siraj at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on March 29. Rohit hit two boundaries in the first over before Siraj's big inswinger exposed the gap between bat and pad. In MI's campaign opener, Rohit was dismissed for a four-ball duck by left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed. He tried to play the flick shot and was caught at short mid-wicket.
"He just got to pretend that he has got the Indian blues on and not the Mumbai blues. He is such a good player. For Mumbai to travel the distance this year, he has got to get runs. He has got to get his team off to flyers, his got to get back his confidence, his mojo. I just think Mumbai without Rohit Sharma firing, I don't think they will make the qualification (playoffs). He is one of those few players who can win a game om his own," Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.
"Sometimes I watch Rohit, like in the Australia Test series, and he sometimes has that persona that he is not bothered when he is there,. I am sure he is not like that. He needs to find that inner motivation. If he can find that, he can be very dangerous," he added.
MI batters fail in first two games
MI's batters have had an underwhelming start to the tournament. In their first game, they could manage to post 155/9 on the board. It was Deepak Chahar's unbeaten 15-ball 28 cameo that helped them get past the 150-run mark against CSK. While top-order failed, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma could not convert start into big scores.
For the second game, Hardik Pandya returned. Siraj dismissed openers cheaply and Will Jacks was dropped. Once again, Tilak could not convert start into big score. Suryakumar contributed with a 28-ball 48 but departed as the required run rate climbed up. Robin Minz disappointed again whereas Pandya managed to score just 11 runs from 17 balls as MI lost to GT by 36 runs.
MI's next encounter
MI's next game is against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 4. It will be interesting to see if MI get back to the winning ways against the Rishabh Pant-led side.