Mumbai Indians (MI) finally earned their first victory of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, beating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Monday. Pacer Ashwani Kumar and opening batter Ryan Rickelton were the top performers for the franchise as MI secured a thumping 8-wicket victory. In an overall satisfactory performance, Mumbai Indians fans weren’t pleased to see former skipper Rohit Sharma failing to leave his mark again. Rohit departed for a 12-ball 13, leaving fans scratching their heads once again. Former England captain Michael Vaughan feels another player in Rohit’s place would’ve been dropped from the team for similar numbers.
In a chat on Cricbuzz, Vaughan highlighted how Rohit would be judged purely as a batter now that he isn’t the captain of the Mumbai Indians franchise. The batter is even being used as an Impact Substitute, with the franchise deciding not to use his experience in the field in most of the matches.
“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 added.
Since the start of the IPL 2025 season, Rohit has registered scores of 0, 8, and 13. Vaughan feels that had Rohit still been the team’s captain, things would’ve been much different, as the management would have valued him in the leadership capacity, too. But, as a batter, it’s just not good enough.
“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 asserted
“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,” he added.
Vaughan also said that a conversation needs to happen between Rohit and the management about the current situation. The franchise has to find a way to get the best out of their former skipper.
“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.
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