One of the Indian Premier League’s most successful cricketers, and a brand name as big as any, Rohit Sharma’s presence in the 18th edition has been largely limited on the field. Used as an Impact Substitute by Mumbai Indians in all but one match this season, the World Cup-winning captain hasn’t spent too much time in the middle as a specialist batter. In all six of the matches he has played for MI this season (missing one due to injury), Rohit has not batted beyond the Powerplay. His scores so far read: 0, 8, 13, 17, 18, 26. An upward trend for sure, and he looked in better touch in his last outing than he did in the first, but that’s clutching at straws.
In his role as India’s captain, and pace-setter for the batting innings in white-ball cricket in the recent past, Rohit has often spoken about maximising impact and not worrying about the volume of runs. That maxim should hold any batter in good stead in modern T20 cricket; it’s why perhaps the Orange Cap is not seen as such a good metric by those who live and breathe this format. But a batter – one who has been retained for Rs 16.30 crore – can’t maximise his impact if his dismissal points read: Over 0.4, 0.4, 5.2, 1.4, 4.6, 3.5.
The bare stats make for glum reading. Rohit is facing an average of 9.5 deliveries per innings this season so far. Among the 69 batters to have scored at least 50 runs this season, Rohit ranks sixth-lowest in that metric. Dig a little deeper, and only one top-order batter – Jake Fraser McGurk, having a torrid season at Delhi Capitals – is facing fewer balls per innings. The other four batters are all lower-order finishers – Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins, Vipraj Nigam and Shahrukh Khan – and each of them has a strike rate in excess of 160, compared to Rohit’s 143.85.
Downward trend
Over his IPL career as well, 2025 is the year he has spent the least time in the middle. Over his 258 innings in the 18 years of the IPL, Rohit’s overall average number of deliveries faced stands at 19.8 per innings, and the second-worst season he has had, after the 9.5 this year, was in 2018 when he faced 15.4 balls/innings. The larger concern, however, is that IPL 2025 doesn’t seem to be a one-off. The decline in his numbers has set in over a period of time.
Last season, he had decent overall numbers of 417 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 150, but those stats get skewed by the 105* off 63 balls he scored at the Wankhede Stadium against Chennai Super Kings (plus another 68 in the last match of the league phase as MI finished last). Apart from those two knocks, his scores last year read: 36, 6, 8, 4, 11, 4, 19. According to ESPNCricinfo, since IPL 2017, Rohit has taken 8.9 innings per 50-plus score, which is the worst in the league for batters in the top-3 with a minimum of 10 such scores in this period.
Looking at his dismissals, a familiar issue has cropped up once again: facing left-arm pacers. Rohit was dismissed by Khaleel Ahmed against Chennai Super Kings in the first over, flicking one harmlessly to midwicket, and was bowled through the gate by a fuller delivery from Yash Dayal against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Against Delhi Capitals, his reaction time was an issue, as he seemed slow in getting down on one knee against leg-spinner Vipraj. By the time he got down and attempted to sweep, the ball had pinged the back leg in front of the stumps. In Ahmedabad, he received a wobble-seam peach from Mohammed Siraj and was once again a tad guilty of not reacting quickly enough.
Slowing reflexes
Against Kolkata Knight Riders, he got out playing an ugly hoick off Andre Russell, while against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday – perhaps his most fluent knock so far this year – he tamely hit a low full toss straight to Travis Head at cover. A couple of dismissals via pull shots, not in this IPL but of late, also indicate that his response time is perhaps not what it used to be. Once he presses onto the front leg, the push-back against the short ball that allows one to get into a balanced position, has been a touch delayed from him. The swivel movement, too, gets affected, resultantly.
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But against SRH, there were some good signs. One of his sixes was a proper top edge, but he played his favourite pick-up shot twice to great effect in hitting big sixes. MI will hope that it can somehow trigger somewhat of a turnaround, because otherwise their star batter has largely been a passenger.
“He took it upon himself to go after the bowlers. We saw some good old-fashioned Rohit Sharma sixes – big ones too. I liked his attitude,” Mark Boucher, former Mumbai Indians head coach, told the broadcasters. “He put the bowlers under pressure, created scoring opportunities. A big score is coming very soon. He’s looking in that zone again.”
It is a sentiment that MI batting coach Kieron Pollard echoed earlier in the season as well. “There are times when you will have a couple of low scores. As an individual, he is enjoying his cricket and not being pressurised in certain situations. I am sure we will be singing his praises when he gives us that big score,” the former MI superstar had said.
He might not be the main-man for Mumbai Indians anymore, but his output has to improve if he has to justify his billing as one of the league’s superstars.
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Least balls faced per innings (min 50 runs scored) in IPL 2025 so far:
Abdul Samad (LSG): 6.7 balls/inns (Strike Rate 202.5)
Pat Cummins (SRH): 6.7 (SR 160.0)
Vipraj Nigam (DC): 8.3 (SR 216.0)
Shahrukh Khan (GT): 8.5 (SR 182.35)
Jake Fraser McGurk (DC): 8.7 (SR 105.76)
Rohit Sharma (MI): 9.5 (SR 143.85)
(Statistics as of the completion of MI vs SRH on April 17)
