The last couple of years have been phenomenal for Rohit Sharma. After dominating limited-overs cricket, the ‘Hitman’ has resurrected his Test career, piling up heaps of runs in different parts of the world.

Rohit is one of the most technically gifted batsmen of this generation but the talent alone is not enough to succeed at the highest level. The reason why he is regarded as one of the best all-format batsmen is because he always wants to improve and works really hard on his technique.

However, the expectation from Rohit is such that experts feel that there is still room for improvement in his batting, at least in the IPL. Former Indian cricketer and selector Saba Karim feels Rohit may have won back to back trophies but he hasn’t delivered with the bat to his full potential that we know he can.

“There's a need for improvement in his batting. He's the captain and the Mumbai Indians are winning trophies under him, that's a different thing. They have a lot of match-winners so his performances don't get much attention,” YouTube channel Khelneeti.

© Twitter/Mumbai Indians

“His most important role in the team is as a batsman... This is a peculiar case. Every time he goes to the IPL he's in brilliant form in international cricket but fails to convert it during the tournament,” said the former wicketkeeper.

“I sometimes feel that a player gets consumed too much into captaincy and it's possible his focus wavers from batting. If you are a batsman-captain, your first role is to make runs with the bat. Captaincy gets better with the confidence from batting which has happened in Rohit Sharma’s case as well,” he added.

© Twitter/IPL

Rohit has guided Mumbai Indians to back-to-back IPL trophies in the last two seasons and they are hoping to become the first team in the history to complete a hat-trick of IPL titles.

Mumbai Indians are one of the most balanced sides in the tournament, with their highlight being their core group of Indian players. The fact that India’s T20 World Cup squad that was announced last week had six Mumbai Indians players in it only shows the quality of their India talent.

© BCCL

Having so many quality players definitely works to Mumbai’s benefit as the team is not dependent on a single individual but, at the same time, if a player is not performing his performance might not get the same attention as it would have in any other team.

As for Rohit, he was in decent form when the IPL 2021 was postponed in May. With 250 runs from the first seven matches, he was one of the leading run-scorers. He was averaging nearly 36, which is way more than his overall IPL average of 31.49.

© Twitter/IPL

So, Saba Karim perhaps didn’t go through his record before passing on his remarks. He reminded us of typical Indian parents who, no matter how hard you work, are never pleased with your efforts.

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