Former Indian player turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has revealed that he felt Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma might leave captaincy ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, just like Virat Kohli did. In the past couple of years, Rohit's batting exploits with the Indians have come under the scanner.
This season as well, the 34-year-old has failed to find the sort of consistency that he's known for while playing for Team India. Manjrekar felt that Rohit could have given up the captaincy burden to focus solely on his batting.
Virat Kohli also did the same, firstly with the Indian T20I team, and later with RCB. His form after giving up RCB's captaincy hasn't been at his usual best, but at least Kohli is getting good starts this season.
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Mumbai Indians on the other hand are still winless in IPL 2022 so far, with their batting and bowling both underperforming this season.
Speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar stated that he felt Rohit should've given the captaincy to Keiron Pollard, in order to focus on his batting.
"I feel Pollard still adds value. (Before the season) I even felt Rohit Sharma might leave captaincy like Virat Kohli, relax a bit, play as a pure batter and hand the responsibility to Pollard who is a brilliant international captain," said Manjrekar.
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Ever since taking over the captaincy of Team India from Virat Kohli, Rohit has been in impeccable form, but he's struggled a lot for Mumbai Indians. Manjrekar added that Rohit should think about his batting, he should focus on himself, rather than thinking too much about being the anchor of the team.
"His record has been like this for the last 3-4 seasons, average less than 30, strike-rate not 150 or 160. When he plays for India his numbers get better… because then he only thinks about himself and less about the team," added Manjrekar.
He continued, "When playing IPL, he tries to play the anchor role similar to what KL Rahul did with Punjab Kings and Hardik Pandya did in the last match. If he plays freely, we’ll see the Rohit Sharma we see in Indian cricket."
