Rohit Sharma To Achieve Huge Milestone During SRH Vs MI Tie; To Join Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni
New Delhi: Rohit Sharma is set to achieve a massive record for Mumbai Indians when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Having joined the five-time champions in 2011, Rohit has played 199 games so far for the five-time champions and will be playing his record 200th game for the franchise. In fact, he is also Mumbai Indians’ top run-scorer with 5084 runs. Notably, Rohit led Mumbai Indians to five IPL titles before being replaced by Hardik Pandya for the top position ahead of IPL 2024.
Former West Indies all-rounder and Mumbai Indians stalwart, Kieron Pollard, is second on the list with 189 matches. Pollard has retired from the game and is currently a part of the Mumbai Indians support staff. Overall, he has played 244 IPL matches in total. Before Mumbai Indians, Rohit represented now-defunct Deccan Chargers.
The only other players to play 200 matches for a single franchise are Virat Kohli (RCB) and MS Dhoni (CSK). While Kohli played 239 games for Royal Challengers Bangalore, Dhoni has represented Chennai Super Kings in 222 matches so far. In total, nine players have played 200-plus matches in IPL.
Under Rohit’s leadership, Mumbai Indians won titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. He also led the franchise to two playoffs. As far as Rohit’s record against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the former MI skipper played 21 matches against the 2016 champions. The right-hander scored 409 runs against SRH at an average of 22.72 including two half centuries. Rohit’s best knock against SRH came in 2017 when he scored 67. The same year, Mumbai Indians won their third title.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians lost to Gujarat Titans in their IPL 2024 opener. Mumbai Indians, who have built a reputation of slow starters over the years, could not manage 48 runs off 36 balls with seven wickets in hand. With the 10-team event being more competitive than ever before, Mumbai cannot afford more such lackadaisical performances going forward.
On the other hand, SRH are coming after a narrow loss against Kolkata Knight Riders. The big-hitting Heinrich Klaasen almost got them over the line from a hopeless situation though the rest of the batters put up below par performances.
The opening duo of Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma has shown promise but would also need to be consistent if SRH are to do well in the competition. SRH have invested heavily in pinch hitter Abdul Samad and it is high time he delivers on the promise.