Tag: Mumbai Indians

Authors, Book Reviews

“The Rise of the Hitman- The Rohit Sharma Story” by R Kaushik

Being an avid cricket fan for six and a half decades, I love books on cricket and cricketers! I was delighted to read, R Kaushik’s “The Rise of the Hitman- The Rohit Sharma Story“. This was published recently by Rupa Publications.

For those readers of this blog, who don’t follow cricket as much as we do in India, let me say that Rohit G. Sharma is one of India’s superstar cricketers. He has successfully captained India to the T20 World Championship in 2024 and the Champions Trophy in 2025. These after that huge disappointment of losing to the Aussies in the finals of the 2023 ODI Championships. Rohit announced his retirement from Test cricket a couple of weeks ago.

In the world of franchisee cricket, he has had the distinction of leading Mumbai Indians to 5 victories in the prestigious Indian Premier League (IPL). Years ago, in 2009, he was a member of the victorious Deccan Challengers team- which gives him bragging rights to 6 IPL titles.

Rohit scored over 4300 runs in 67 Tests with an average of 40.58 and 12 centuries with a highest score of 212. He played 275 ODIs scoring over 11100 runs for India, with an average of 48.77 and a strike rate of 92. He hit 32 centuries including 3 double centuries. His highest score of 264 made in 2014 still remains the world record. In the more modern and currently everyone’s favourite format – the T 20, he has played 159 matches for India scoring 4231 runs averaging 32.05 with a strike rate of 140.89. He has scored 5 T20I centuries as well.

With this in context, let’s get back to the book. I found the book to be largely made up of impressions of Rohit, as a player, as a captain, and as a friend and human being from many eminent cricketers. The author has gleaned their thoughts and impressions over the years as they saw Rohit in different capacities. They include the likes of Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Anil Kumble, and W V Raman, who need no introduction to the cricket fan. Dinesh Lad, Rohit’s first coach recalls his childhood days and how he saw the latent talent in the boy from Borivali, a suburb of Mumbai.

“The Hitman” as Rohit is affectionately called by his world wide legion of Tests fans, went through many ups and downs. There were several deep disappointments, especially in the early years. His missing his first Test in 2010 due to an unfortunate injury on the morning of the Test readily comes to mind. Such was the competition for places in the Indian Test team that he had to wait for 3 years before he finally made his Test debut. Another big disappointment was his missing out on the T20 Team for the 2011 Championship which India won.

We read about his journey as a cricketer from the young days when he was seen as a boy with great talent till he became the icon he now is. The book highlights his skills as a player and more importantly as a skipper. It describes his memorable performances and what he brought to the table as he led from the front. As a captain of India, he won 12/ 24 Tests, 45/56 ODIs and 49/62 T20I. A very commendable record, indeed!

Ritika Sajdeh, his wife, has contributed immensely to Rohit’s successes. She deserves every credit for standing by him through thick and thin. I wish we had heard more from Rohit’s parents- their perspectives and challenges.

Books on crickets are devoured by cricket lovers. We just love our statistics! So, to set The Hitman’s cricketing achievements in context, I wish the book had a page on his career statistics, to make it more complete.

Thank you, Kaushik, for yet another well-written cricketing book! Your simple and elegant language makes for easy reading. We look forward to many more.

In The News, My Take

Mumbai Indians: Worthy Winners of IPL 2020

There’s a sudden void these days for old folk like me! The reason is not far to seek: the Indian Premier League (IPL) which kept us busy for the last two months is over! We have to wait for the next edition which they say may be in 4-5 months time! The Mumbai Indians (MI) were the worthy winners. I think they richly deserved the top honors. You may recall they had 9 wins out of the 14 matches they played in the league stage. In the knock outs, they first beat Delhi Capitals to go directly into the finals and a few days later defeated them once again in the finals!

The Mumbai Indians have the distinction of having won the tournament 5 times in the last 8 years: in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and now in 2020. Also they are only the second team after the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to have won two successive editions of the IPL.

To K L Rahul, captain of the Kings XI Punjab goes the credit of scoring the most runs in this tournament: 670, but his team finished 6th missing out on the knock outs. They say that every ball and every run is important in the IPL. Rahul was unlucky in that an umpiring error cost them one match versus Delhi early in the tournament.

If the Orange Cap for the most runs went to K L Rahul, the Purple Cap for the most number of wickets by a bowler in the tournament went to Kagiso Rabada of Delhi Capitals for his 30 wickets in 17 matches.

I was delighted to see the promising Devdutt Padikkal of Royal Challengers Bangalore ( RCB) get the coveted Emerging Player Award amongst tough competition. This young left handed opening batsman scored 473 runs in 15 matches and took some great catches too. Certainly this talented man is one for the future, for RCB if not for India, provided he keeps a steady head on his shoulders.

For the team I support, RCB it was another disappointing year in that we thought, like we do every year, that we may finally win the IPL title. However, the good news was that RCB finished 4th compared to 8, 6 and 8 in the last three years, so that’s progress.

As always the standards of catching and fielding were brilliant. A few catches and fielding efforts stood out, as captured in this article. You can see them again and again, that’s how great they were!

Hat’s off to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for doing what seemed the impossible! While the pandemic raged all over the world, the BCCI brought some cheer to cricket fans by pulling off this spectacular tournament in the UAE.

In the next year, 2021 again there will be changes, swaps, buys and sells in the teams. The managements will reflect on how they can improve. This year’s winners -the Mumbai Indians- will think what they need to do to keep the title for an unprecedented third year!

In The News, My Take

IPL: The Last 4 Standing!

We are in the last lap of the prestigious Indian Premier League (IPL) arguably the richest sporting league of its type in the world. In past editions, a couple of teams raced ahead and were clear favorites for the title while a few were laggards. This year, the 13th edition being played in the United Arab Emirates, proved to be one of the most interesting and closely contested events.

Here are the four left standing after the league phase of 56 matches in which each of the 8 teams played their 7 opposing teams twice. The Mumbai Indians were the first to qualify with 8 wins. They have won the tournament in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. No other team has won so many times!

Their supporters say Rohit Sharma’s team will lift the Cup this year as well with their formidable batting and bowling squads. Yet every team can be beaten. Mumbai have lost 5 matches, including one in a thriller super over against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In any case, their opponents say they win only in alternate years so probably won’t win this year!

The Delhi Capitals, having had one of their best seasons qualified to be No 2 by beating the Bangalore team. Not having won the title so far, their motivation will be very high driven by their Head Coach, the Aussie Ricky Ponting. They will play the Mumbai Indians in the first match of the knock outs on November 5. The winner will go straight into the finals. This is the biggest advantage of finishing first or second in the league phase. This team has never qualified for the finals so far.

The loss to Delhi Capitals pushed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to the third place but at least they made it to the last four. This is indeed creditable because they finished 8, 6, and 8 in the last three years! They featured in three finals- in 2009, 2011, and 2016 but have never won the IPL trophy so far. Will this year end on a magical note for them?

Until the very last match, we didn’t know who would be the fourth team to qualify for the play offs. However in that match, Mumbai Indians were given a bloody nose by the Sunrisers Hyderabad who not only won but crushed them with a rare 10 wicket victory. It is not as if the openers had to score 50-60 runs to win. David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha scored all the 151 needed for a match-winning opening partnership. With this victory, Sunrisers Hyderabad vaulted to the No 3 position going ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore by virtue of a better net run rate. They have won the title in 2016 so will be trying for their second title.

Who do we expect to shine in this last lap? While every player is important and matches have been lost by extremely narrow margins because of a small lapse, each team has a few stars they count upon. For Mumbai Indians, I rate Bumrah and Pollard to be the most dangerous players on their day. For Delhi Capitals, their Purple Cap holder with 25 wickets so far this season, Kagiso Rabada and their seasoned opener Shikhar Dhawan will be key. I expect David Warner and Rashid Khan to be the best performers for the Sunrisers just as Virat Kohli and A B De Villiers will, as always, be banked upon by the Royal Challengers.

So, let’s wait and see what happens as the last four matches will decide who will lift the 2020 IPL trophy on November 10.