Rohit Sharma, the captain of former Mumbai Indians, recently reflected his time in a conversation with the franchise, saying that there has been a lot of change in the years, his and the team’s mentality has always aligned. MI had a edge season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year, in which the team finished the table with 4 wins and 10 defeats at the bottom of 8 points.
“Obviously, since I started till now, a lot of things have changed because I used to bat in the medieval order, now I am opening batting. I was Captain (MI) then I am not the captain now. There were some team companions with whom I won the championship, they are not there, they are now in coaching roles.”
He said, “Therefore, the roles have changed, a lot of things have changed, but the mentality has not changed. What I want to do for this team has not changed, just to go out of there and win games and trophies, the same Mi is known for all these years,” he said.
Reflecting in the previous season, Rohit said that each player needs determination to bounce back. He said that he was focused to end his career in the smallest format on a high, which he did after winning the T20 World Cup. India defeated South Africa by 7 runs in Barbados to win the trophy.
“… This is where you need to show a little grit as a player, determined to return at least. This (2024 IPL) was low for the team and I think we did not even play our best cricket and there were many things to watch for the IPL,” he said.
“I knew that a World Cup was coming and I had to move my attention to the World Cup, knowing that this is going to be my last T20 World Cup. So I really wanted to count it, and obviously I knew that it was not possible without the help of other players. So we were around as a group and we had a lot of collective performances in the entire tournament.”
Meanwhile, Mumbai has started this IPL season with a loss to Chennai Super Kings, which is the 13th consecutive loss in its season’s opener. The last time he won his first match of the season, it was in 2012 where he defeated CSK.
(With agency input)
