Rohit’s form a concern for Mumbai ahead of RCB clash

MUMBAI: With the race for playoffs intensifying, captain Rohit Sharma’s form with the bat and bowling in the death overs will be a huge concern for Mumbai Indians when it meets Royal Challengers Bangalore in an IPL clash here on Tuesday.

With 184 runs in 10 matches at a forgettable average of 18.39 and a solitary half-century, Rohit is enduring a second consecutive poor season with the bat. For Mumbai to move up in the points table, it is imperative that its best batter in the line-up fires.

Rohit’s role in this IPL has been to provide brisk starts at the top, and at times he has had some success too, but consistency has deserted the batter whose early dismissal in huge chases has only added pressure on a relatively new batting line-up.

Mumbai head coach Mark Boucher admitted that a few games ago that consistency could get compromised if any batter goes out of his way to look for runs, but for Rohit, one of the highest run-getters in the IPL, it is becoming a pattern.

However, with Rohit not firing at the top, MI has had the likes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Cameron Green consolidating in the middle while Tilak Varma and Tim David have also found their groove as finishers late in the order.

MI tried taking pressure off Rohit by sending him at No. 3 in its last game against Chennai Super Kings, but it was a move that worked for none of the parties involved. Rohit endured his second consecutive duck and fourth single-digit score on the trot.

Mumbai will also be concerned about its death overs bowling, having conceded four consecutive totals in excess of 200 while bowling first, two of which were recorded at the Wankhede Stadium.

RCB will hope that its troika of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell fire at the top, since whenever they have done so collectively, the team has found itself mostly on the right side of the results. Mahipal Lomror struck a quality 54 against Delhi Capitals but his knock was not enough as RCB suffered a shock defeat. With 511 runs, Du Plessis is the only batter this season to have crossed the 500-run mark.