Cricket legends have slammed Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma for his poor decision making in the season.
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Record five-time champions Mumbai Indians have looked like a pale shadow of themselves in IPL 2022. The Rohit Sharma-led side created an unwanted record of eight consecutive losses on the trot before registering their first win in the lucrative tournament this season. But their slump in form makes perfect sense as the franchise is still looking to compile their best XI from the new look squad which was formed at the IPL mega auction.
Mumbai Indians have shown that they have an array of talents including the likes of Dewald Brevis, Tilak Verma, Jofra Archer, new joinee Tristan Stubbs and batting maverick Tim David in their line-up who can prove to be a handful in the upcoming season. Their middle-order which used to have Hardik Pandya in the line-up might have looked shaky with Kieron Pollard not holding the fort after his release but David has shown that he can be relied on with the bat.
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The Singapore-batter notched up an unbeaten knock of 44 off 21 deliveries in the IPL 2022 match against table topper Gujarat Titans to guide his side to 177/6 in the stipulated 20 overs. His innings was laced with two boundaries and four hits over the fence and more importantly it came at a time when the Mumbai Indians needed some assurance form their batter after facing a tough time throughout the season.
However, David was left out of the Mumbai Indians playing XI for the major part of the tournament, even though his strike rate and batting prowess is well known in the cricketing circuit. The decision came as a surprise to one and many with the cricket legends like Ian Bishop and Daniel Vettori questioning Rohit Sharma’s poor tactics.
“Everybody I know in the circle I worked in asked where Tim David was when he wasn’t playing,” Bishop told ESPNCricinfo after the game. “He’s shown in these two games why he should have been playing. Mumbai Indians, when they reflect, will have to say we didn’t get it right with some of the selections we made in the first half of the tournament. David said himself he’d love to bat up the order. He’d love the chance to go early and set himself up. He’s young. He is heading towards the prime of his career. Let us not pigeonhole this guy and let him blossom into something dynamic.”
“It’s such an impressive innings,” Vettori, who was part of the panel, added. “It’s Shami, it’s Lockie Ferguson, he made it all look easy. Not one ball did he slog. It’s a big, tall man using his strength and using his ability. Forty-four off 21 when they were under a little bit of pressure. It would be fascinating to understand why a player of his class was left out when they had two available [overseas] slots.
“David has done this before in other leagues when he sat out a little bit. He’s putting together this resume where he should be the one who’s first selected. Australia are going to be looking at him with the power that he has. There’s a lot going on to be impressed with. You just don’t see such clean hitting with such pure shot making at the back end of an IPL innings.”
