Sunil Gavaskar feels
Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians and India captain, should take some time off from the ongoing IPL and come back fresh for the last few league games and the subsequent World Test Championship (WTC) final.
“I would like to see some change in the batting order [for Mumbai Indians],” Gavaskar said on Star Sports after
Mumbai Indians lost by 55 runs to Gujarat Titans on Tuesday. “Honestly, I would also say that Rohit should maybe also take a break for the time being, and keep himself fit for the World Test Championship [final]. [He can] come back again for the last few matches, but right now, [he should] take a little bit of a breather himself.”
On Tuesday, Rohit was dismissed for 2 (off eight balls), an attempted flick ending up as a leading edge that flew high and into bowler Hardik Pandya’s hands. His form with the bat has been mixed, much like his team’s season. Although they started with successive losses, Mumbai Indians came back to win three in a row before again losing two back-to-back games. While Rohit has scored 181 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 135.07, he has been dismissed between 20 and 45 on four occasions; his highest of 65 – his only fifty this season – came in a Player-of-the-Match performance
against Delhi Capitals.
“It’s going to be a miracle that’s going to make them qualify [for the IPL playoffs]. The way they are at the moment, yes, they could conceivably finish [at number] four, but they will have to play some extraordinary cricket, both batting as well as bowling”
Sunil Gavaskar on Mumbai Indians’ season
The IPL ends on May 28, with
the WTC final scheduled to start on June 7 at The Oval, where India will be facing Australia. Gavaskar wondered if Rohit had already started to think about that game, given its importance –
India had lost the previous WTC final to New Zealand.
“He is looking just that little bit preoccupied. Maybe at this stage he is thinking about the WTC [final], I don’t know,” Gavaskar said. “But I do believe that at this stage he needs a little bit of a break, and come back for the last three or four matches so that he is in rhythm for the World Test Championship [final].”
So far this year, Rohit has played six back-to-back ODIs against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, before four Tests against Australia followed two weeks later. And, just after that, he played the second and third ODIs against Australia after missing the first ODI because of family commitments.
Mumbai Indians’ next match is against Rajasthan Royals at home on Sunday. As things stand, they are at No. 7 on the ten-team table with three wins from seven games, not as bad as
the bottom-place finish last season but far off the standards they have set as the most successful team in IPL history.
“It’s going to be a miracle that’s going to make them qualify [for the IPL playoffs],” Gavaskar said. “The way they are at the moment, yes, they could conceivably finish [at number] four, but they will have to play some extraordinary cricket, both batting as well as bowling.”
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