Mumbai Indians (MI) coach Mahela Jayawardene heaped special praise on senior batter Rohit Sharma after his spectacular performance in their IPL 2025 win against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday (April 20). After an indifferent run with no half-centuries since the start of the season, Rohit Sharma came into his own and hammered an unbeaten 76 off 45 deliveries to take MI home comfortably in their chase at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
For his extraordinary knock, Rohit Sharma was awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ award on the field and off it, he earned a special medal from MI’s team management led by their coach and Sri Lankan legend Jayawardene, who called the Hitman a ‘maverick’.
Rohit Sharma stroked his way back to form with a brilliant 76 runs vs CSK
When Rohit Sharma was out of form in the early part of the IPL 2025 campaign, many felt he was out of place in the tournament. The age of T20 cricket has evolved and the Indian batters are now focused on getting those quick runs. When you look at the Abhishek Sharma’s, Priyansh Arya’s of this season, the emphasis is always on fast starts and not getting those big hundreds.
However, in IPL 2025, something had to give. Things just weren’t working out for Mumbai ka Raja Rohit Sharma in his own backyard. Then came the CSK game and we were in for a treat from one of the most aesthetically pleasing batters of all time.
Rohit Sharma was unfazed about his matchup with Khaleel Ahmed, someone who dismissed him in the season opener for MI. The opener just dismissed the ball from his presence as MI got rolling. A few more disappeared on the night, some pretty close to the site where the new Rohit Sharma stand will be installed at the Wankhede stadium.
Just when we thought Rohit Sharma would be one-dimensional during the knock, we saw the smarter side of the MI opener kick in. Knowing that he wasn’t being able to attack the spinners, he handed the driving wheel to Suryakumar Yadav, who also scored a brilliant fifty.
Once the confidence came back, Rohit Sharma attacked the likes of Noor and then took down Matheesha Pathirana to seal the win. Rohit Sharma scored 76 off 45 balls as he took on the bowlers with his aggressive approach, which the Indian opener has used in white-ball cricket over the past few years.
MI coach Mahela Jayawardene has said that the team wants Rohit Sharma to continue his high-intensity approach after the opener roared back into form during the win over CSK. Rohit Sharma played a smart innings to help Mumbai secure a thumping 9-wicket win over Chennai in the IPL El Clasico on Sunday, April 20, after a poor run of form during the season.
Mahela Jayawardene heaps praise on Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma’s aggressive approach with the bat might have drawn criticism for more misses than hits but Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said the team has backed the former captain to bat at a similar tempo despite its perils.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Jayawardene said that Rohit Sharma understands batting with a high tempo but at the same time he knows to read the situation well.
The MI coach pointed out how the opener realised not to take on R Ashwin when he came on and made the right choices. Jayawardene said that Mumbai want Rohit Sharma to take control of games as he has batters who will play around him.
“Yeah, he’s been playing with that tempo for a while. He understands it. But at the same time, he reads the situation well. Like today, when Ashwin came on, he took a little time, didn’t try to take on the long boundary immediately.
“That’s what experienced players do they make good decisions. He’ll still play with that tempo, and we encourage that. He’s a damn good player, and we want him to take control. There are others who will bat around him and support that style too,” said Jayawardene.
“Once he comes off like that, you know that he’s going to change the game and the momentum and that’s going to filter down to the rest of the boys as well, so pretty happy with the approach,” Jayawardene told the media in the post-match press conference.
“He never changed his approach. The intent was there from day one, even though he was failing, so that was good for us that he was trying to play for the team and how he wanted to do it. We just backed him to do that,” he added.
Jayawardene said MI built match-up situations in the game for Rohit in training to help him be in the right frame of mind.
“Rohit does bat in the nets, but there is a different preparation to how he goes about it. For him, there were a couple of good balls he got and then a couple of times that he tried things that didn’t work, so you try to fight through those situations,” he said.
“For a guy with that kind of experience, you literally leave them be and have those positive conversations and say that, ‘let’s do the matchups and then see how he gets going’ and keep those positive intent.
“That was the very few conversations Polly had with him, I had with him and he was quite okay about everything. He knows what he needs to do,” he added.
Jayawardene said there wasn’t much concern around Rohit’s string of ordinary scores.
“It was just a timing thing that he gets going and then gets through that first three, four overs,” he said.
“Even after starts, he had a couple of shots which probably just mistimed a little bit. But that’s how the game goes, you need to be understanding that. We’ve played enough cricket to know that as well,” he concluded
Rohit Sharma and MI would aim to continue his form in MI’s next league stage vs the Sunrisers Hyderabad which would turn out be an exciting fixture at Hyderabad as Sunrisers Hyderabad would love to exact the revenge of their loss vs Mumbai Indians at Wankhede.
Also Read: MI vs CSK: Rohit Sharma & Suryakumar Yadav Wallop CSK With A Dominant Win