 "Rohit Sharma has scored just 82 runs in six matches in IPL 2025. Image: Reuters")
Virender Sehwag feels it’s time for Rohit Sharma to hang up his boots in the Indian Premier League, but before he leaves, if the 37-year-old needs to make an impact, that will become a lasting memory — he will need to change his game.
Rohit has been struggling for form in IPL 2025, having only scored 82 runs in six matches so far. In fact, Rohit has only scored 400-plus runs in one out of the last five seasons, which indicates diminishing returns from his bat.
On Thursday, Rohit smashed 26 off 16, his highest score so far in the IPL 2025, but failed to convert it into a fifty as Mumbai Indians defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets at the Wankhede Stadium.
‘Rohit’s batting is hurting his legacy’
Before the MI vs SRH match in Mumbai, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag gave his honest opinion on where Rohit Sharma stands in his career at this stage.
“If you look at Rohit’s IPL numbers in the last 10 years, he scored more than 400 runs only once. So he is not the kind of player who thinks that I need to score 500 or 700 runs," Sehwag told Cricbuzz. “If he thinks, he might.
“When he became the Indian captain, he said that he wanted to be the player who wants to cash in on the powerplay and take the chances, so he wanted to make all the sacrifices alone, but he is not considering the fact that at the end of the day when he is not performing, it is your legacy that is getting hurt.”
Sehwag added that it’s time for Rohit to retire, but if he still wants to make an impact, the former MI skipper needs to make changes to his batting style.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Ab unke jaane ka samay hain, (It’s now time for him to retire), and before retiring, you would want to give fans something to remember you by, and not moments that force them to think, why are they not dropping him,” Sehwag said.
“Take 10 balls extra, but at least play and give yourself a chance. He has been getting out to that pull shot many times against the back of the length deliveries. So he should decide that in one innings he will not play the pull shot at all. But who will explain it to him? There should be someone telling him to play normal cricket. When I was there, Sachin, Dravid or Ganguly used to tell me to play normal cricket,” he added.