Rohit Sharma Blames Irresponsible Batting For 8 Straight Defeats: With the eighth loss in as many matches, five-time champions Mumbai Indians have been knocked out of the playoff race in IPL 2022. Their latest defeat came against Lucknow Super Giants, at their home ground, Wankhede Stadium, falling short by 36 runs to LSG’s total of 168.
Skipper Rohit Sharma felt that the target was a chase-able one but his batters, including himself, played some “irresponsible” shots and the lack of a big partnership hurt them in their chase. Sharma called upon his batters to take the “responsibility and go on to play long innings” that none has done so far for them.
“I thought we bowled pretty okay. It wasn’t easy. It was a good pitch to bat on. I thought that score should have been chased down, but we didn’t bat well enough. When you have a target like that, it is important to string partnerships. But some irresponsible shots in the middle, including mine. We didn’t get the momentum. They bowled really well,” Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation.
“We haven’t batted well enough in this tournament. Whoever plays in the middle needs to take that responsibility and go on to play long innings. Some of the opposition players have done that and that is what is hurting us. One guy needs to ensure that he bats as long as possible,” Rohit Sharma added.
While Rohit Sharma and Tilak Varma got into 30s but failed to convert their knock into a match-winning one, MI would be disappointed by the struggle of Ishan Kishan (8 off 20 balls) and Kieron Pollard (19 off 20 balls).
Now that MI are eliminated from the playoff race, Rohit Sharma was specifically asked about the inclusion of Tim David, who was dropped after a couple of matches.
“Everyone has come into discussion given how our tournament has gone. We need to ensure that we have a settled team and give players in the middle a fair chance. We tried not making too many changes, and we have tried to play the best combination possible. But when you lose games, you always have such discussions. As far as I am concerned, I want to give people enough chances to prove themselves. The season hasn’t gone the way we would have wanted it to, but such things happen,” the MI skipper concluded.
Taking two points and a healthy boost to their net run rate, Lucknow re-enter the top four, sitting at the fourth spot with 10 points.
