New Delhi: New Delhi: Former cricketer and current cricket analyst Sanjay Manjrekar said he thought that Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma would give up his captaincy in the IPL 2022 just like former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli, but it did not happen.
Sanjay Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo that Rohit, in the past three IPL seasons, has not been batting very freely and at the same time his strike rate has also not looked very good. Manjrekar believed that Rohit would hand over Mumbai Indians' captaincy to Kieron Pollard before IPL 2022 and play only as a batter, like Virat.
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“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,” Manjrekar told ESPNCricinfo.
“Pollard still has the capability, I can see that from the sixes he hits. He’ll contribute in the pressure match, the crunch game. But they need to reach there first and that’s not on Pollard, it never has been. He’s never contributed throughout the season for Mumbai Indians. He plays one innings in a pressure game and sees the team through. Others need to work better because Pollard is doing his usual job,” he added.
Mumbai Indians will aim to end their four-match losing streak tonight when they take on Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 match. For Mumbai, tonight's match against Punjab is highly important because if they lose, they will have to win at least eight matches out of their remaining nine matches, to stay in the race for the IPL 2022 playoffs.