Back at favourite Eden, skipper Rohit looks to fire
KOLKATA: The Eden Gardens is to Rohit Sharma what it was to Mohammad Azharuddin and VVS Laxman. Rohit has a world record score of 264 in One-day Internationals here in 2014 made while coming back from a finger injury, a Test ton worth 177 and two IPL titles won on this ground.
Rohit also made his first-class debut at Eden and got his first IPL ton here. In an interview, Rohit has said fans once gave him a card which said this was “Rohit Gardens.”
What better venue, therefore, to help Mumbai Indians continue their customary late surge into the IPL playoffs. Even in IPL, Rohit has tormented Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), scoring an unbeaten 109 in 2012 (60balls; 12x4, 5x6), 98 not out in 2015 (65b; 12x4; 4x6) and 84 (10x4, 2x6) in 2016.
Add to that a 26-ball 50 in the 2015 IPL final and it is difficult to find a better setting for Rohit to end his somewhat ordinary run in IPL 2018.
MAN OF THE MOMENT
With ex-knight Suryakumar Yadav in good form, Mumbai Indians (MI) need Rohit to fire to ensure that their starts are not wasted. Rohit is scoring at 28.87 this term and though he did worse in IPL10 on way to taking MI to their third title, the last time before 2017 when he averaged less than 30 was in 2010.
“The general public will judge that Rohit’s performance has not been that good by his high standards. But for me, he has performed when the team needed it.
That has been crucial. He played an unbelievable innings against
RCB. We were nought for two and he stood up and got 94. Those are crucial moments from a leadership point of view. You stand up when adversity hits the team. That is when your leadership mentality comes through,” said MI’S JP Duminy.
“That is when your team follows you. And that is the cornerstone of who he is as a person.”
The other pressure-moment performer for Duminy is Hardik Pandya. “He is an exceptional talent and the kind of player you need at this stage,” said the South African. “What makes Pandya different is that he treats triumph and disaster just the same.”
With Rohit at Eden, and Yadav, Evin Lewis and Hardik on song, if MI can adjust to the conditions here, their run to the playoffs may not look like mission impossible it did not so long ago.