No Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, or Shubman Gill!! Michael Clarke reveals his best white ball opening batsman

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke feels that Indian captain Rohit Sharma is the best white ball opening batter in the world and that his franchise Mumbai Indians needs him to fire desperately.

Clarke made this admission while speaking to Star Sports recently, ahead of MI's 4th IPL 2024 league stage match against the Delhi Capitals. Rohit is expected to be in action later today at the Wankhede stadium and the former franchise captain will be aiming to help his side guide towards a first victory of the season.

A lot depends upon the form of Rohit Sharma, who is key to Mumbai's plans and the onus will be on him along with his opening pair Ishan Kishan.

The 36-year-old right-hand batter has scored 69 runs until now from matches against Gujarat Titans, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Rajasthan Royals. In all of those matches, MI weren't able to register a win and in the first two matches they had reached extremely close but were still pretty far off from the victory.

Against the Rajasthan Royals which was also MI's first home game of the season, Rohit Sharma had got for a duck and his poor performance directly impacted the result of the game. His golden duck was followed by another 2 golden ducks of Naman Dhir and Dewald Brevis.

All of them were sent back to the pavilion by RR's Kiwi seamer Trent Boult. Mumbai had eventually scored the lowest total of this season - 125, which the RR batters chased down by the 16th over with Sanju Samson's side winning the tie by 6 wickets and 27 balls remaining.

What did Clarke say about Rohit Sharma?

While speaking to Star Sports in the build-up of Mumbai Indians versus Delhi Capitals, Michael Clarke was asked to shed light on who he thinks is the best white ball of all time.

To everyone's shock, Clarke did not choose anyone from Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Adam Gilchrist, and Matthew Hayden among others. He named Rohit Sharma as the best white-ball opener of all time.

Michael Clarke then claimed that Mumbai Indians are desperate to see him get going in the 2024 season. Clarke highlighted Rohit's importance in the MI team and that even if he is not captaining anymore, the Nagpur-born cricketer is still very imperative. "Rohit Sharma is the best white ball opener. Mumbai Indians need him." - Clarke said via Star Sports.

Rohit Sharma's record in IPL

Before getting to his record in the Indian Premier League, it is worth noting that Rohit Sharma should be able to at least score 500 runs this season. And that's because his form in this edition will benefit the batter as well as the Indian team when the ICC T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies begins.

Meanwhile, in IPL, Rohit has scored 6280 runs from 246 IPL matches since 2008 for the Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians. He has averaged 29.48 at a strike rate of 130.34 with a best of 109*. He has scored 42 half-centuries on the way.