Former England captain Michael Vaughan has criticized Mumbai Indians opener Rohit Sharma for his lacklustre start to the IPL 2025 season. Rohit, who featured as an Impact Sub in two of MI's three matches, scored just 15 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders at Wankhede Stadium on Monday. He was dismissed for a duck in MI’s season opener in Chennai and made only eight runs against Gujarat Titans.
“You look at his numbers, you’ve got to remember, we’re judging Rohit just as a batter now, because he’s not the captain. Now, I think you can get away with average numbers, and they’re average numbers. If your name’s not Rohit Sharma, you’re probably losing your place in the side at some stage with those numbers. They’re not good enough for a player like Rohit Sharma,” Vaughan told Cricbuzz.
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Rohit’s IPL average has dropped to 29.42 after 260 matches, with fewer than 140 runs in his last 10 games. Despite his struggles, Vaughan believes MI will find it hard to drop a player of Rohit’s stature. “I’m not saying that they’ll get rid of him. I’m not going to drop him. Come on, get us off to a start. Get your flow back, get your rhythm back, get your mojo back. Because for Mumbai to go and put right what they’ve not done right in the first two games, it does require that senior core to produce,” Vaughan concluded.
Mumbai Indians Beats Kolkata Knight Riders by Eight Wickets
Mumbai Indians (MI) secured their first victory of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) by defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight wickets with 43 balls to spare at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. After two consecutive losses, the Hardik Pandya-led side gave a debut to Ashwini Kumar, a left-arm pacer with only two T20 matches in his career before this contest. Kumar impressed with a four-wicket haul, becoming the first Indian to achieve the feat on IPL debut. He dismissed Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, and Andre Russell. MI easily chased down the target, with Ryan Rickleton scoring his maiden IPL half-century. Suryakumar Yadav contributed a quickfire 27 off nine balls to seal the win for the five-time champions.
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MI's next match is against Rishabh Pant’s Lucknow Super Giants on Friday, April 4, at Ekana Cricket Stadium.
