Former India player turned commentator Aakash Chopra said that Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma’s below-par IPL performance slipped under the radar in the last season because the other batters were performing well. The former Indian opener has stated that Rohit does not have that cushion in IPL 2022 as they have failed to do well so far, losing all six games. Rohit, meanwhile, has managed only 114 runs at an average of 19 and a strike rate of 129.55.
While previewing the match on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said: “You expect runs from Rohit Sharma, but they are just not coming. It is not like Rohit Sharma had been scoring 500 runs in previous IPL seasons. But because the others played so well, it did not become an issue. But that is not the case now. Rohit the batter has to come. Rohit and Ishan (Kishan) need to score runs for Mumbai to win.”
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However, Rohit’s only 500-run IPL season came way back in 2013. He amassed 538 runs in 19 matches as Mumbai won the title for the first time. Analyzing Mumbai’s batting form, Chopra shared that Dewald Brevis has been impressive, but Sri Lankan off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana could trouble him as well. While Brevis has amassed 117 runs in four matches at a strike rate of 172.05, Suryakumar Yadav has 200 runs to his name from as many games at a strike rate of 153.84 as well.
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“Dewald Brevis is batting very well, but he will have an interesting match-up with Maheesh Theekshana. He might get found out a bit against the slow ball. Suryakumar Yadav can bat up the order, Tilak Varma is doing well. I don’t see MI making a change in bowling. Riley Meredith is on the bench, but they don’t want to play him despite Tymal Mills being expensive. They are not even thinking about Mayank Markande instead of Murugan Ashwin. Jaydev Unadkat is doing a decent job, but this doesn’t look like a fearsome bowling attack,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
