RCB vs MI: 'Plz take retirement Rohit Sharma' - Twitter unhappy with Mumbai skipper's batting

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Rohit Sharma's IPL 2023 campaign was off to a poor start as the Mumbai Indians captain could only score a run during RCB vs MI match at Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday. The batter played 10 balls during the course of the flop show against Royal Challengers Bangalore, leaving fans fuming on Twitter.

Opening the innings with Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma was taking his time to settle on the crease. However, some good bowling displays from RCB pacers Mohammad Siraj and Reece Topley saw Kishan (10) and Cameron Green (5) go back to the dugout in quick succession.

The onus was on the MI captain to bail the visitors out of the trouble but he was stunned by unheralded pacer Akash Deep in the final over of the powerplay. The pacer bowled a perfect length around the off stump and a bit of movement from the ball saw Rohit Sharma edge the ball to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps.

The dismissal came right after Sharma was granted a life early in the powerplay when he miscued a pull shot up in the air. A miscommunication between bowler Mohammad Siraj and Dinesh Karthik led to a dropped catch as the duo comically collided.

The innings did no favour to the 35-year-old opener's statistics, which revealed that Rohit Sharma's average and strike rate in the IPL has been on a decline since 2018. The skipper was striking at the rate of 133 in 2018 and has dropped to 120.1 by the end of the IPL 2022. It is an exaggeration but his strike rate at the beginning of the IPL 2023 is just 10.

Adding further embarrassment, the Team India ODI and Test skipper has achieved an unwanted half-century of getting out for less than 5 runs in the IPL. This is the highest-ever in the history of the tournament with Dinesh Karthik (44) and Robin Uthappa (41) second and third on the list respectively. Rohit Sharma also hasn't hit a half-century in his last 15 IPL innings now.

Fans took to Twitter to vent out their anger on the captain as MI came to IPL 2023 after finishing dead last in the previous season. Some called for his retirement while some found him unfit to play in a derogatory tweet.