Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma is an underestimated captain who does not receive the same kind of praise as his Chennai Super Kings opponent MS Dhoni.
Both Rohit and Dhoni guided their respective clubs to victories in the IPL 2023 playoffs. While CSK qualified for the final by defeating Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1, MI defeated Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator and will meet GT in Qualifier 2 on Friday, May 26.
Gavaskar commended Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in the eliminator match against LSG. The Indian great spoke about how Rohit Sharma collaborated with Akash Madhwal to plan the dismissal of Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran off successive deliveries.
“Of course, he is underrated. The man has won 5 titles for Mumbai Indians. Let me give you an example. Madhwal got Ayush Badoni, bowling over the wicket. He then went round the wicket to the left-hander Nicholas Pooran.”
“Not a lot of bowlers necessarily do that because if they get their rhythm going bowling over the wicket, they will stick to over the wicket even it’s a left-hander, trying to leave the left-hander. But he went around the wicket and produced an absolute gem of a delivery and got the man out.”
Gavaskar went on to say that if Dhoni had done anything similar, the degree of appreciation would have been entirely different.
“If that had been CSK and Dhoni was the captain, everybody would have said, Dhoni plotted Nicholas Pooran’s dismissal. This is what happens to a great extent. There is also a little bit of hype, things sometimes work out.”
Madhwal recorded a perfect 5/5 in the Eliminator versus LSG. He cleaned up Badoni, who just missed his slog. He moved round the wicket with the next delivery and forced an edge off Pooran’s bat.
Gavaskar on how Rohit Sharma used Nehal Wadera
Gavaskar also commended Rohit for utilising a batsman, Nehal Wadhera, as an Impact Substitute despite MI batting first in the Eliminator.
He said that teams like to use a bowler as an Impact Player in the first innings.
“What I am saying is Rohit Sharma did not get the credit for telling Madhwal to bowl round the wicket. The captaincy situation as well. Remember, Nehal Wadhera was used as an impact player batting first. Teams generally don’t use batters as Impact Player when they are batting first. But Rohit used Nehwal when MI were batting first against LSG. So please give him credit for that as well.”
Wadhera hit a crucial 23 from 12 balls to give the Mumbai Indians a late surge. They scored 182/8 and then crushed LSG for 101.