Mumbai: Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has revealed that he felt Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma might quit captaincy ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, just like Virat Kohli did.
Mumbai Indians are currently struggling to get their first win of the IPL 2022 season, having lost five straight matches so far, MI are currently languishing at the bottom of the points table. The five-time IPL champions, with a relatively new and lack of depth in the squad, have struggled so far, putting more pressure on skipper Rohit Sharma.
Rohit has been struggling to score runs for the team at the top of the order despite getting good starts. Manjrekar believes the time has come for Rohit to give up the captaincy and play freely. He even compared Rohit Sharma’s batting stats while playing in IPL and while playing for the country.
“I feel Pollard still adds value. (Before the season) I even felt Rohit Sharma might leave captaincy like Virat Kohli, relax a bit, play as a pure batter and hand the responsibility to Pollard who is a brilliant international captain,” Manjrekar was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo.
Rohit has been under scanner for his performance in the previous season as well, the 34-year-old has failed to find the sort of consistency that he’s well known for while playing for Team India. Manjrekar further reckoned Sharma’s batting has to be a little selfish and play more “freely” as he did for India.
“His record has been the same for the last three or four seasons, with an average strikeout rate of fewer than 30, and a strikeout rate of less than 150 or 160. His numbers improve when he plays for India because he is just concerned with himself and not with the team,” said Manjrekar.
“When playing IPL, he tries to play the anchor role similar to what KL Rahul did with Punjab Kings and Hardik Pandya did in the last match. If he plays freely, we’ll see the Rohit Sharma we see in Indian cricket,” Manjrekar added.
Talking about Kieron Pollard’s contribution with the bat, Manjrekar said, “Pollard still has the capability, I can see that from the sixes he hits. He’ll contribute in the pressure match, the crunch game. But they need to reach there first and that’s not on Pollard, it never has been. He’s never contributed throughout the season for Mumbai Indians. He plays one innings in a pressure game and sees the team through. Others need to work better because Pollard is doing his usual job.”
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