Rohit Sharma opened the batting for the Mumbai Indians in the first game versus the Kolkata Knight Riders and scored 98 fabulous runs and then, for some reason, he demoted himself in the batting order and started coming at 3 or 4.
And, since the time he has done that, Mumbai’s overall batting has been all over the place.
Rohit is the most important batsman for the Mumbai Indians in the subcontinent conditions and that’s because he is a fine player of the spinners.
He can milk the spinners which the overseas batsmen or even some of the other Indian batsmen can’t do effectively.
In the limited over formats of the game, you want your best player to play the maximum no. of deliveries and in Mumbai’s case; it can happen only if Rohit opens the innings.
Also, Mumbai’s problem in the recent games has been that they have not been able to build a platform.
With Rohit opening, they might be able to do that and then, their big hitters can take over in the death.
And, Rohit opens for India as well quite regularly in the One day Internationals and the T20s.
Mumbai has lost 4 out of their 4 games and to have any chance of reaching the playoffs now, they need to win at least 7 out of their remaining 10.
Actually, batting is not Mumbai’s only problem. The balling has not been doing the job either.
Lasith Malinga is not quite the same ferocious slinger any more and Harbhajan Singh is finding himself on the downward curve as well.
The young Pawan Suyal and Jagdeesh Sudeep are trying their best, but, they are just a little too raw for this level.
Mumbai’s next game is against Royal Challengers Bangalore.