India skipper Rohit Sharma admitted he could not live up to the batting standards expected from him in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 for Mumbai Indians, adding that despite his poor outing, his focus was to be in the right zone and work to iron out his flaws.
Rohit, who was replaced by Hardik Pandya as MI’s skipper ahead of the 2024 season, ended his tournament with a stunning 38-ball 68. Overall, Rohit amassed 417 runs in 14 innings at an average of 32.08 and a strike-rate of 150, including a century and fifty.
“As a batter, I know I didn’t live up to the standard. But, after playing for all these years, I know that if I overthink, I won’t play well. All I try is to stay in a good mindset, in the right zone, keep practicing, and improve on all the flaws in my game. That’s all I kept doing,” Rohit told JioCinema.
MI had a below-par time in IPL 2024, ending with an 18-run defeat to Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday, to conclude their season at the bottom of the points table.
“Our season didn’t go according to plan. We blame ourselves for this because we made too many mistakes during the season. We lost many games that we should have won, but that’s the nature of the IPL. You get a few chances and when those chances come, you must grab them,” added Rohit.
His next assignment will be to captain India in the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. India will play their only warm-up match against Bangladesh on June 1, before opening their campaign against Ireland on June 5 at the 34,000-seat modular Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
Rohit also revealed that the majority of the Men’s T20 World Cup squad was decided before the IPL 2024 began. “We thought a lot about the team we ultimately selected for the World Cup. The spinners, seamers, batters, and keepers, we knew before the IPL who we would take to the World Cup.”
“The IPL performances for everyone can be up and down, so we didn’t focus too much on that. We needed to see the performances of certain players, but it was important for us to give everyone the clarity they needed.”
“Everyone going into the IPL needed clarity of whether they would participate in the team and what their role would be so they could practice and play accordingly. All of these indicators we had shared with 70% of the team before the IPL,” he concluded.