Mumbai Indians (MI) opener Rohit Sharma has failed to set the IPL 2024 stage on fire. While the right-hander made a strong start and slammed a century against CSK last month, he couldn’t build on it.
In his last three innings, Rohit hasn’t managed to touch the double-digit mark. Overall, he has amassed 315 runs at an average of 35 and a strike rate of 158.29 in 10 innings so far this season.
With the T20 World Cup 2024 around the corner, questions have been raised over Rohit Sharma’s form and also his mode of dismissals.
The veteran opener has been troubled by left-arm pacers far too often in the ongoing IPL. While Trent Boult has taken his wicket twice, Rohit has been dismissed by Sam Curran, Khaleel Ahmed and Mohsin Khan one time each.
India are set to face Pakistan in the upcoming T20 World Cup, and the arch-rivals have one of the top left-arm pacers Shaheen Afridi in their ranks. Moreover, several other skilled left-armers will feature in the global showpiece tournament.
Ahead of MI’s next match against KKR, former India batter Wasim Jaffer opened up on Rohit Sharma’s struggles against left-arm fast bowlers.
“He had his problems against left-arm seamers. The way he plants his front leg, you could always feel that anything that's coming in will trouble him. Even right-handed bowlers have found a way to get him out. But left-armers create an angle which makes it more difficult. In the recent past, he has gone after them; he tries to slog them and sometimes walks towards the bowler to negate the swing,” Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo.
“He had his problems. I thought Trent Boult got him out nicely with an away-swinger, which he wouldn't have expected. He mistimed a drive against Khaleel, so I won't call it a well-planned dismissal. But there's a loophole in his game which he knows. He tries to counter-attack and get them off their line, and that is smart from him. He tries to avoid the problem through his attacking skills,” he added.
Jaffer suggested Rohit not to take aggressive route from the word go, and rather focus on timing the ball in the first couple of overs.
"I think he's got decent numbers against Mitchell Starc. And Starc's form is a concern, Rohit knows that. Rohit also hasn't scored the runs in his last four matches, so he will be keen to get into the World Cup with a bit of form,” Jaffer stated.
“I feel Rohit needs to take a little bit more time; he's trying to muscle the ball too early in his innings. He can take a couple of overs to get himself in and look to time the ball rather than trying to hit it too hard. It's going to be an interesting match-up, as any left-handers for Rohit Sharma is a little bit of worry,” he further remarked.
