‘Yeh Banega India Captain?’ Rohit Sharma Gets Flak For Sitting Out Vs CSK Despite Being Healthy

Rohit Sharma sat out in the first match of the second leg of the Indian Premier League 2021 season as the reigning champions, Mumbai Indians took on Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his Chennai Super Kings side. Many fans felt he was struggling with his hamstring or his left knee. However, during the match, the MI head coach Mahela Jayawardane confirmed that that wasn’t the case. 

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On the day that the IPL was supposed to restart, fans were excited to see two of the most successful captains in league history guide their teams towards victory. However, when they saw the MI Paltan walking behind West Indies ace Kieron Pollard, and Rohit Sharma nowhere in sight, they were disheartened.

Nobody, not even the commentators knew what was wrong with Sharma and speculated about being down with the injury he had picked up during his final days of the Test series in England, as he had not taken the field in the second innings of the fourth Test at The Oval cricket ground. Back in London, it was confirmed that Sharma had injured his left knee and needed time to nurse it back to health.

UPDATE – Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara will not take the field. Rohit has discomfort in his left knee while Pujara has pain in his left ankle. The BCCI Medical Team is assessing them. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/ihMSUPR7Im

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 5, 2021

“Rohit is okay, he’ll be fine sooner rather than later, I’m just the captain for today,” Pollard said at the toss. 

Everything was fine and people made peace with the fact that Sharma was unfit to play and hence required to sit out for the match against CSK… until MI head coach Mahela Jayawardane got interviewed by Kevin Pietersen during the live game, in which he said that Sharma was completely fine and was ready to play cricket. He just wasn’t playing because of “extra precaution”.

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This made the fans rage, especially because MI ended up losing the match while unable to chase 20 more runs. Another reason was the brain-fade moment by the interim skipper Pollard, for not keeping pressure on the CSK batsmen with his pace bowlers when CSK were at 24/4. As a result, batsmen like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ravindra Jadeja set their feet in the middle to form an 81-run partnership, which turned around the fate of the match.

Dear Ro,
You created a GOAT team. But, the team needs you. Without you they can’t win a tournament as a great leaders motivates them, plays tactically to win it. Please comeback soon and win this last one with your GOATed IPL Team, can’t see you sad like this!@ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/gbRq8B1HDk

— MK (@NotMK45) September 19, 2021

Are you Intentionally Letting Pollard lead a side against CSK after all Points matters ( Superstition matters or what) No Rohit in Playing XI now Vs CSK & MI wins a match most of the time

— Ankit Mehta (@Anki4uever) September 19, 2021

WTF?! MI doesn’t want to qualify this year https://t.co/lu7lAOf3pn

— Rangolis (@ragz_93) September 19, 2021

Sachin had different dedication level as he atleast managed to stay fit, rarely he had hams & quad issues eventhough the fielding standards were not that great then. But with Rohit Sharma & the importance of fielding I doubt if he can cause he is already having knee & quad issues

— Keerthi S Bhat (@KSB3Tweets) September 18, 2021

Recently, Virat Kohli confirmed that he was going to give up his T20I captaincy but continue to play with the Indian cricket team just as a batsman. Therefore, Sharma is conjectured to be the one to replace him as the boss man.