IPL 2018: Rohit Sharma Opens Up on His Disappointing Twenty20 Season

Rohit Sharma has expressed his disappointment over his poor campaign with the bat for Mumbai Indians (MI) in the recently-concluded eleventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The right-handed batsman Rohit, who has led the Indians to a record three IPL titles, cut a sorry figure throughout the season with the bat as the defending champions crashed out owing the league stage.

In the last few years, Mumbai has been over-reliant on Rohit. And not surprisingly, his modest returns with the bat hurt his team’s chances this year.

For the first time in his IPL career, the 30-year old Rohit failed to cross the 300-run mark with the bat. He finished the season with just 286 runs to his name at a modest average of 23.83.

In a recent interview, Rohit Sharma rued the team failed to deliver as per its capability before admitting that he failed to live up to his own expectations with the bat.

“A disappointing campaign without a doubt. I said many a time during the season that this team was much, much better. I think we had a much better squad than most of the other teams who went on to qualify also. But again, we have ourselves to blame for it. We made too many mistakes,” PTI quotes Rohit.

 

“And personally for me, it was not a great season. I expected a lot from the standards I have set for myself and the kind of performance I have had lately. I gave myself full chance to go out there and do what I could,” Rohit remarked.

Rohit reiterated that he got the good start but couldn’t leave an impact by finishing things off as expected.

“I started off well with a few innings and then towards the end when it was needed the most, it didn’t happen, so that was disappointing,” he added.

When asked about the reason behind his constant struggles this season,

Rohit said:“Shot selection. But again, shot selection is something that will be talked about when the results are not going your way. But those shots when I play in the first over of the match and it goes out of the stadium, it gets you that momentum the team is looking for,” Rohit further said.

 

“You have to back yourself to do that. I backed myself but it didn’t come off. When it comes off, you win games; when it doesn’t, you lose. I have been in that situation too often,” he added.

Mumbai-based outfit finished the season at the fifth position with six wins in 14 games. They had the chance to make it to the playoffs by winning their last league game against bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils (DD) but they failed miserably.