'Rohit should change his name to ‘No Hit Sharma’': Srikkanth
Rohit's slump deepened as he incurred his second consecutive duck in the tournament also it is the most duck by any batsman in IPL.
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For the second consecutive season, Rohit Sharma's season average has been below 20 in the Indian Premier League. In 2022, he scored only 268 runs in 14 games for the forgettable Mumbai Indians, averaging just 19.14 without a single half-century. In the current IPL 2023 season, he has scored 184 runs in 10 innings at an average of 18.40, despite achieving a fifty only once. On Saturday, the decline worsened as he failed to score in the tournament for the second consecutive time, prompting a scathing attack from India legend Kris Srikkanth.
Rohit fell victim to MS Dhoni's astonishing snare in the third over of Mumbai's innings after being given the opportunity to bat first. Playing mind games with the MI captain, Dhoni positioned himself close to the stumps in response to a delivery by Deepak Chahar. Rohit attempted a lap shot against the slower bowler, but mistimed it and edged it to Ravindra Jadeja at gully.
The dismissal off three balls was his second consecutive failure in IPL 2023, following a similar situation against Punjab Kings in Mohali earlier this week. Since his 44-run performance against PBKS at home on April 22, he has only tallied five runs in four innings.
Moments after Rohit's dismissal, Srikkanth called him "Not Hit Sharma" during commentary. Rohit Sharma should alter his name to 'NO HIT SHARMA'; if I were MI's captain, I wouldn't even play him in the XI.
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It was also Rohit's 16th dismissal for a duck in his IPL tenure, surpassing Dinesh Karthik, Mandeep Singh, and Sunil Narine as the most by a batter in the tournament's history. Eleven of these dismissals occurred while he was captain, which is a record in and of itself, as he relieved Gautam Gambhir of his undesirable IPL accomplishment.
It was also a forgettable excursion for Mumbai. With the help of Nehal Wadhera's 64-run innings, Mumbai Indians reached 139 for eight against CSK at the Chepauk. Chennai chased down the target in 17.4 overs, losing only four wickets, to move into second place in the standings.
