Throughout the last five IPL seasons and beyond, the Indian captain has been among the worst-performing batsmen. Despite his elegance and reputation as a smooth six-hitter, Rohit has amassed only mediocre numbers of runs during the competition. Ahead of the T20 World Cup, this may be excellent news for India as he has been a standout performer in T20Is. However, it appears that he is also trying to make amends this IPL season.
Since 2013, when he was captain of the Mumbai Indians, Rohit has not had a season over 500 runs, and since 2016, his average has not surpassed 30. It has been nine years since his strike rate exceeded 133 in a full season.
Rohit’s situation is distinct since his lacklustre IPL performance doesn’t detract from his ability on the international stage. No T20I starter has scored as many runs as Rohit in the previous ten years. In the most recent series India played, he broke the record for the fifth T20I tonne and is currently leading the T20I six-hitting charts (190).
After the IPL, there will be a T20 World Cup, and it appears that Rohit has finally stopped separating his T20I and IPL personas.
Second breeze late
With an average of 24.31 and a strike rate of 127.59, Rohit amassed 67.3 percent (886) of his runs (1313) in the Powerplay throughout the last four editions (2020–2023). Rohit failed to last the first six overs a staggering 32 times in the 55 innings during this time, which is the highest percentage of any opener. In 16 innings the previous year, Rohit only made five appearances in the middle overs.
The 36-year-old has scored at a historic strike rate of 178.21 in seven games this season, falling just twice while amassing 180 runs during the Powerplay phase.
The middle overs are where the IPL batsman Rohit will be attentively watched. Rohit waltzed through the Powerplay with a strike rate of 168 but slowed down significantly between overs 7-16 – scoring only 36 from 26 balls at a 138.46 strike rate – during a 207-run chase against Chennai Super Kings last Sunday. MI lost by 20 runs even though Rohit scored his first IPL century in a dozen years and stayed undefeated.
Before struggling to break free later on, Rohit scored 24 runs off of 13 balls on Thursday in the Powerplay against Punjab Kings. In the middle overs, he fell for 36 off 25 balls and added 12 runs off the same number of deliveries.
This time, can Rohit decipher the World Cup code?
Over the past four years, Rohit has continued to be one of the most productive T20I openers despite playing just three T20Is since the 2022 T20 World Cup.
With the greatest strike rate in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), Rohit has been placed sixth among top-order batters since 2020 (with a 20-innings cut-off among the top 10 nations). Along with his increased pace, Rohit has struck at a rate of 145.15 in 45 innings as opposed to 132.72 in 62 IPL innings during the previous four years.
Senior professionals like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been compelled to raise their intent quotient due to the IPL’s changing six-hitting tendencies and rising scoring rates.
The fact that there hasn’t been as much six-hitting in T20I matches as there has been in the IPL over the past two years may provide Rohit with some relief.
IPL 2023 was the most successful edition in terms of six-hitting, with 1,124 sixes in 15.24 balls per maximum. It has decreased to around 13.4 balls per six (Bp6) so far this year. In contrast, the 2022 T20 World Cup produced less sixes—only 405 at 24.28 Bp6—than the 2021 tournament. As an example, the six-hitting percentage in the 2010 Caribbean T20 World Cup was 21.36.
In his 46 T20I matches since 2020, Rohit has hit a maximum every 13 balls, so he wouldn’t be unduly concerned about his hitting ability.
Over the last three T20 World Cups (378 runs in 16 innings), he hasn’t exactly lit the place on fire. Rohit’s great start this year, with his strike rate reaching its peak in a 16-year career, bodes well for India ahead of the world cup in June.
