Rohit Sharma has been having a terrible time in the Indian Premier League for the second year in a row, with his season average once more falling below 20. He scored just 268 runs in 14 games for Mumbai Indians in 2022, averaging just 19.14 without recording a single half-century. While he did get a fifty once during the current IPL 2023 season, he only averaged 18.40 runs per innings in 10 innings while accumulating 184 runs. He suffered his second consecutive duck in the competition on Saturday, deepening the slide and drawing a stinging rebuke from India great Kris Srikkanth.
After being asked to bat first, Rohit was caught in a breathtaking trap by MS Dhoni in the third over of Mumbai’s innings. In an attempt to trick the MI captain, Dhoni stood near the stumps as Deepak Chahar delivered the ball. When Rohit attempted to use the lap shot against the slower player, he ultimately mistimed it and edged the ball to Ravindra Jadeja at gully.
He had already faced the same situation in the Mohali game against Punjab Kings earlier this week, making the three-ball dismissal his second straight duck in the IPL 2023. In actuality, he has only produced five runs in four innings since his 44 against PBKS at home on April 22.
Immediately following his dismissal, Srikkanth referred to Rohit as No Hit Sharma in commentary. Srikkanth further said that if he were the captain of Mumbai Indians, he wouldn’t even pick Rohit for the starting XI and that he should rename himself as “Not Hit Sharma.”
In addition, Rohit was dismissed for a duck for the 16th time in his IPL career, which is a record for a batter in the history of the competition, passing Dinesh Karthik, Mandeep Singh, and Sunil Narine. A record in and of itself, eleven of those dismissals occurred while he was captain and relieved Gautam Gambhir of his dreadful IPL performance.
Mumbai saw a dismal outing as well. Mumbai Indians battled their way to 139 for eight against CSK at the Chepauk, riding Nehal Wadhera’s 64-run knock. Chennai reached the mark in 17.4 overs while only losing four wickets, moving them up to second place in the standings.
