The captain of India, Rohit Sharma, who dons the Mumbai Indians jersey in the IPL, has been one of the best cricketers to have played the game in the last two decades. Whether its international or franchise cricket, the 36-year-old has delivered the goods time and again, during his illustrious career.
But, after a disappointing end to the final of the ODI World Cup 2023, which saw Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team come second best against Australia, his time at the top level of cricket is expected to slowly but surely wind down. The lack of success at Mumbai Indians in recent times has been far from ideal for the Nagpur-born cricketer, especially when their arch-rivals have caught up to them with five-IPL trophies of their own.
In this article, SportsTiger looks at four reasons why IPL 2024 could be the last for Rohit Sharma.
Leaves captaincy at Mumbai Indians
One of the biggest reasons why IPL 2024 could be the last for Rohit Sharma is his decision to leave the role of captaincy at Mumbai Indians in the build-up to the new season. Hardik Pandya, who captained Gujarat Titans to their first ever IPL trophy in their inaugural season in 2022, has taken over the reins from him, which shows how the MI team management wants to look forward in their vision to bring back the championship glory to the city once again.
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Age starting to catch up with him
Rohit Sharma was once a regular feature in all the three formats for India along with competing for Mumbai Indians in the IPL, but in the last couple of years, it hasn’t been the case for him. The 36-year-old is managing his workload in recent times, skipping ODIs and T20I matches regularly for India, apart from suffering from some niggles, which has kept him out of action at the international and franchise level.
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Not played T20Is for a year as captain of India
As part of his workload management, Rohit Sharma, who is still the designated captain of India in the T20I format, has not competed for the national team in the format since they lost the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 against England at the Adelaide Oval. As of this writing, it is not confirmed whether the Indian batting superstar will play a T20I match for the country ever again, but if it is the case, then it will be hard for him to continue playing for Mumbai Indians after the IPL 2024.
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Dwindling batting form for Mumbai Indians
In the last couple of years, Rohit Sharma has been far from impactful for Mumbai Indians at the top of the order in comparison of his standards from the times past. The IPL 2022 season saw him score just 268 runs in 14 matches at an average of 19.14 and a strike-rate of 120.18, while the last season wasn’t much better for him either, putting together just 332 runs in 16 matches at an average of 20.75 and a strike-rate of 132.80.
