‘Senior guys need to step up, starting with me’: Rohit Sharma says after Mumbai Indians’ defeat to CSK

After Mumbai Indians lost their second consecutive game of the Indian Premier League 2023, Rohit Sharma asked his side to be “more brave” in their approach. Mumbai lost to Chennai Super Kings seven wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
Batting first, Mumbai could only manage to score 157/8 with Ishan Kishan (32), Tim David (31), Tilak Verma (22) and Rohit (21) getting starts. But none of them could help the home side put on a defendable total. Mumbai boy Ajinkya Rahane set up Chennai’s chase perfectly with a 27-ball 61-run knock.
“We lost our way in the middle. Did not capitalise on the start. It was a good pitch, we were 30-40 runs short in the middle,” admitted Rohit. “Got to credit their spinners, they bowled well and kept us under pressure. You need to try out different things you need to attack and be brave. We have got a couple of young guys and got to give some time to them. They have real talent and we have to back them and show trust in their ability which we are doing. The senior guys need to step up starting with me.”
Mumbai slumped to the eighth spot in the IPL 2033 standings after the defeat to CSK. While they are five-time champions, they had finished last on the points table last season.
“We know the nature of IPL, when the tournament starts we need to get some momentum and when you don’t it is tough. These are just two games and all is not lost still. If you win, you can win a few on the trot and when you lose it is hard to come out of that momentum. Hopefully things start to change. Things we speak in the changeroom has not worked in the middle. We know we had a very disappointing last season, but we always start afresh, even when we won the five trophies, we never thought we won it last year,” he added.
He went on to add: “These two games has happened, we can’t change. Of course we can learn and be more brave in changing things on the field.”