He amassed 418 runs in the previous edition.
Mumbai Indians (MI) are heading into the IPL 2026 with an aim to end their five-year trophy drought. The franchise, which won five titles under Rohit Sharma, has not managed to get close to it since 2020. Even handing over the captaincy to Hardik Pandya in the last two seasons hasn’t worked.
MI did well in the previous edition to reach Qualifier 2, where they lost to Punjab Kings. The Mumbai Indians IPL 2026 squad looks pretty strong on paper but they have some issues. If they are to lift the championship, they need their senior players to step up, including their former captain.
Rohit Sharma has a long list of accomplishments in his career. He is a T20 World Cup-winning captain along with winning five IPL titles as a captain, and six as a player. He also has two CLT20 trophies as the MI skipper. Despite all of those captaincy credentials, his impact as a batter in the league has been underwhelming.
While he excelled in international cricket, Rohit repeatedly failed in the IPL. Between 2017 to 2023, he had only one season with more than 400 runs. He failed to average 30 or strike at 135 in any of those seven editions. Eventually it led to him getting sacked as the captain.
Since giving up the captaincy, he has had better time in the league. He has registered two back-to-back seasons with 400+ runs. He has averaged 30.92 in the last two years at a strike rate of 149.64, hitting one century and five half centuries. The franchise will expect him to continue on this upward trend, and deliver a better season.
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From the outside, Mumbai Indians seem to have a formidable line-up. However, they have some major issues that could derail their campaign. When you look at their squad, they lack batters who can instill fear in the opponents barring Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya when he’s on song.
The problem with that pair is, SKY has not been the same batter in recent months. His striking ability is waning and he has been unable to play spin with ease, often getting stuck in his innings. The latter is an issue that has compounded Tilak Varma as well. Hardik, on the other hand, has a well-documented weakness against hard lengths.
दणकवला out of the ground! ☄️💙 pic.twitter.com/an46Gw5vH1
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 18, 2026
Mumbai’s other batting options in the playing XI include Quinton de Kock or Ryan Rickelton, Sherfane Rutherford or Will Jacks, Tilak and Naman Dhir. All of them have their own problems. There’s too many supporting players in this line-up, which makes the role of the Indian superstars much more important.
The Mumbai Indians batting unit has been carried by Suryakumar Yadav in the past few years. But with him struggling, the team needs someone else to step up. Can that someone be the 38-year-old veteran? Rohit has remodeled his game late in his career and found great success for India. Can he do that in Blue and Gold?
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