One of South Africa’s greatest captains, Graeme Smith , on Wednesday revealed the probable reason behind Rohit Sharma’s poor form with the bat. The Mumbai Indians skipper has managed to score 80 runs at an average of 20 in the IPL 2022 so far. The five-time champions have lost all four of their games in the season.
The Mumbai Indians face the Punjab Kings at the MCA Stadium, Pune on Wednesday.
Smith is the only Test captain to play in excess of 100 test matches. The 41-year-old also holds the world record of the highest number of wins in test matches as a captain (53 wins). He scored 9,265 runs in Tests, 6,989 in ODIs and 982 in T20Is.
The Protea explained Rohit Sharma’s falling form, saying that full-time Indian captaincy might be affecting him.
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“This is the first tournament he is captaining MI since becoming India’s white-ball captain. Does that mental strain take a toll in the IPL? It’s something to consider,” Graeme Smith was quoted as saying by ‘Cricket.com’.
Sharma succeeded Virat Kohli as India’s full-time skipper. He led the T20 and ODI sides immediately after the World Cup last year and captained te Test team in March (vs Sri Lanka).
“Rohit is the energy at the top of the order. Gets them off to a start, sets up the game that allows everyone else to play. When he is scoring runs MI are going to win a lot of the time. He’s just such a key player. If you look at the line-up, Rohit, an outstanding player, hasn’t found form.,” Smith added.
The Protea legend further added that Mumbai Indians have a strong batting lineup with Ishan Kishan at the top, followed by the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis and Kieron Pollard.
Against Punjab, MI won the toss and elected to bowl. Mayank Agarwal and co were 90/0 after nine overs.
