Former India opener Virender Sehwag has slammed Mumbai Indians batter Rohit Sharma for his poor shot selection in the recent IPL 2024 match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), on Saturday.
Despite being 65/1 in 7 over while chasing 158 runs, Mumbai Indians could only make 139/8 and lost the rain-curtailed game by 18 runs. Rohit Sharma struggled badly, scoring 19 in 24 balls before Varun Chakravarthy ended his woes in the 9th over.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag voiced his concerns over MI's approach, particularly highlighting the dismissals of Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav.
"Whoever bowls good, just play him out. If two wickets hadn't fallen, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav could've finished the match an over before. Vaibhav Arora, Mitchell Starc, Andre Russell and Harshit Rana had to ball anyway; if they played out the spinners and didn't lose the wickets, they would've won the game," Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
"You can't have an ego when you come out to bat. You play them out or punish the loose deliveries. Naman Dhir came right at the end and smashed two sixes and a four; if Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were set at that time, they would've hit 5 balls for boundaries," Sehwag added.
Sehwag was critical of Rohit's dismissal, stressing the importance of tempering aggression with discretion.
"You could be Rohit Sharma or Suryakumar Yadav, but at least respect the delivery if you can't respect the bowler. The ball on which Rohit Sharma got out wasn't a weak ball. No doubt Rohit and Suryakumar are great players, but that doesn't mean you should hit the good deliveries, too,” he said.
After a brilliant start to his IPL 2024, including a century against CSK, Rohit Sharma had faltered badly. In his last 7 innings, Rohit has failed to reach double figures in four of his last 7 innings and his highest score has been 36 runs, that came against Punjab.
