Shastri on Rohit: 'You can go flat no matter who you are'

Ravi Shastri believes Rohit Sharma's challenges as captain of Mumbai Indians "have doubled" in the past two years, leading to poor returns as a team.

"The resources that you had two or three years ago isn't quite the same. The challenges as a captain might have doubled for him. The work as a captain would have doubled as opposed to two years ago when everything was nice, set - go out there and do the job," Shastri said about Rohit's captaincy on ESPNcricinfo's Ravi & Raunak programme.

"And then comes the challenge of how do you get them [the team] going, how do you motivate that bunch, how do you create a combination, how do you see who is the best in that lot to fit in and deliver at a certain stage of the game."

It's a period in which they have lost players who formed their core in the glory years, there have been retirements, and injuries to key players.

With two new teams coming in as the IPL became a ten-team tournament from 2022, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya went to Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, respectively. Lasith Malinga retired from all formats of the game before that, in 2021, while Kieron Pollard also called time on his international and IPL career last year. They did get Jofra Archer at the mega auction but he couldn't play last year because of injury, and is still finding his feet in IPL 2023. Jasprit Bumrah was then ruled out of IPL 2023, throwing a spanner in Mumbai's plans of unleashing the pace duo together. They do have Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav from the old core in the mix, but the rest of the line-up is a new one from MI's point of view.

Rohit is the most successful captain in the history of the IPL, having led MI to five titles - the highest in the IPL - in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. However, they had their worst seasons last year, when they finished last on the table with just four wins in 14 games. They lost their first two games this season as well before stringing a few wins, and currently sit sixth on the table.

The dip in results has coincided with Rohit losing form. He scored 268 runs in IPL 2022 without a single half-century, with an average of 19.14 and strike rate of 120.17. Rohit's 2023 is going no better: in ten innings, he has scored 184 runs at 18.39 and a strike rate of 126.89. This includes two ducks.

There have been calls for Rohit to take a step back.

Sunil Gavaskar recently suggested that Rohit "needs a little break" and should return refreshed for the last stage of the IPL's league phase and the World Test Championship final. Tom Moody, speaking on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time:Out recently, noted that Rohit has looked a bit "mentally fatigued".

Shastri agreed that not being in form with the bat has affected Rohit's captaincy as well.

"If you start getting on a purple patch where you are scoring runs, the job as a captain becomes much easier, the body language on the field changes, that energy on the field is different as opposed to when you are not getting runs. You can go flat no matter who you are," Shastri said. "That's where, as a captain, it is more important that your performances come into play. It is harder now because of the stage of his career, the kind of team that they have.

"The same team could be a terrific team in a year's time or two years' time, once they start gelling together. But to get that right mix, that's the job of the captain."