'I know, I didn't live up to the standard': Rohit Sharma admits to his failures as batter in IPL

Rohit Sharma scored a brilliant 68 against Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday to end his IPL 2024 campaign with a bang. However, it was not enough for Mumbai Indians as they lost the IPL 2024 match by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium. MI hoped relieving Rohit of leadership duties might help him rediscover his form as a batter in IPL 2024. And there were glimpses of it this season. 

Rohit Sharma has averaged less than 30 in all seasons since IPL 2016 with a change coming in only 2024. Rohit's first hundred since IPL 2012 came this season also. His batting stats in IPL hasn't been as magnanimous as his India stats where he has 5 hundreds. And now even India skipper has acknowledged that he could not match the expected batting standards in the ongoing IPL but instead of indulging in over-thinking, his endeavour was to stay in the right zone and keep working on his flaws.

The five-time IPL winning skipper endured a wretched form in the second-half of the season, struggling to cross even a score of 20 in six matches for Mumbai Indians.

"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," Rohit said on JioCinema Match Centre Live. He returned to form with a 38-ball 68 in their last match against Lucknow Super Giants but MI ended up on the losing side and finished the season at the bottom of the table.

"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.

"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." 

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'70 per cent of T20 WC players had clarity' 

The Indian skipper said they knew what their the T20 World Cup-squad would be like and 70 per cent of the players had clarity about their roles going into the IPL.

"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." 

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India begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland in New York on June 5. 

(with PTI inputs)