Former England captain Michael Vaughan has raised concerns over Mumbai Indians (MI) stalwart Rohit Sharma’s disheartening form in the IPL 2025. MI tasted their first success of the season with their eight-wicket win against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the iconic Wankhede Stadium. Left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar, who was playing his debut IPL game, looked extraordinary with the ball and clinched a four-wicket haul. Riding on his scintillating bowling show, the hosts bundled out the reigning champions on 116. Following the low score, Ryan Rickelton walked out in the middle with Rohit, who participated in the match as an Impact Player (IP).However, the 37-year-old again failed to be impactful with his bat. He departed after scoring 13 off 12, with his dismissal at the hands of Andre Russell in the sixth over of the innings. This was Rohit’s third consecutive failure in the competition. Earlier, the right-handed opener accumulated figures of 0 and 8 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT) respectively.
In his conversation with CricBuzz, Vaughan emphasised that Rohit’s performance is getting analysed as a pure batter after the veteran was stripped of MI captaincy ahead of the IPL 2024. He also wonders if the veteran opener is an incredible captain for India then why he can’t lead MI in the league. "I always scratch my head with Rohit Sharma in Mumbai. I always think, if he's good enough to be the Indian captain, how is he not captain in Mumbai? I can always say that because I just don't get it. He's a wonderful captain for India. He's done a great job," remarked Vaughan.
“You look at his numbers, you've got to remember, we're judging Rohit just as a batter now, because he's not the captain. Now, I think you can get away with average numbers, and they're average numbers. If your name's not Rohit Sharma, you're probably losing your place in the side at some stage with those numbers. They're not good enough for a player like Rohit Sharma," he further added
Ashwani Kumar dazzles on his IPL debut
In MI’s scintillating victory, Ashwani made vital contributions with the ball. The speedster bowled three overs and delivered the crucial scalps of KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, and Andre Russell. With these figures, he became the India bowler with the most successful bowling figures on debut in the league (4/24 in three overs).
After winning their home game, Mumbai will next take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 4 at the Ekana Stadium. With this win, Mumbai are now in the sixth spot on the points table with one win and a couple of losses. The victory also boosted their net run rate with +0.309.
