Michael Vaughan: ‘If your name’s not Rohit Sharma, you’re probably losing your place in Mumbai Indians | Cricket News
Mumbai Indians secured their first victory of IPL 2025, defeating Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets at Wankhede Stadium on Monday. Despite the romp, former England captain Michael Vaughan expressed concerns about Rohit Sharma‘s batting performance, who has managed only 21 runs in three matches this season.
Rohit Sharma’s recent IPL performances have been underwhelming, with scores of 0, 8, and 13 in the three matches of IPL 2025. In the past five IPL editions, he has crossed the 400-run mark only once.
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Rohit played as an Impact Player against KKR, entering the field only in the 16th over of KKR’s innings as Mumbai Indians chased down the target of 117 runs with 49 balls remaining.
“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 said on Cricbuzz.
“But if he’s the captain as well, and he’s adding his knowledge of being a leader, the culture creator that he is, tactician that he is, and I see it on a regular basis with India, and I’ve seen it with Mumbai in the past, I cannot cope with those numbers. But when you’re just the batter now, that’s how we have to judge Rohit Sharma because he isn’t the captain. He needs runs,” Vaughan added.
Despite the criticism, Vaughan maintains that Rohit should not be dropped from the team due to his X-factor. His performance last season was salvaged by a century against Chennai Super Kings at Wankhede Stadium.
“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,” said Vaughan.
“And then around that, if your senior core, Trent Boult, Suryakumar Yadav, and obviously Rohit, produce their consistency, the youngsters can just enjoy the game. You say to the young players, look, just get out there and enjoy it. When you’re saying to the youngsters at the minute, you’re going to have to produce a bit of magic for us. It’s quite hard. So I think the Rohit numbers are a real problem for the side and he has to try and get that right,” he added.
Vaughan also questioned the decision to remove Rohit from Mumbai Indians’ captaincy, which was handed over to Hardik Pandya last year.
“I always scratch my head with Rohit Sharma in Mumbai. I always think, if he’s good enough to be the Indian captain, how is he not captain in Mumbai? I can always say that because I just don’t get it. He’s a wonderful captain for India. He’s done a great job,” said Vaughan.
“You’ll have to look at what’s happened in the last couple of years with the white-ball scene. Now, if he’s deemed the best person to captain the national side, how can he not be the best person to captain the franchise team? He’s going to play the whole season. I’m probably stirring up another pot from last year,” he concluded.
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
