Cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra believes that Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma would not be proud of his unwanted record of being dismissed for the 16th time without scoring a single run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to go past Dinesh Karthik and Sunil Narine to achieve this poor record in IPL history.
Speaking on Rohit Sharma’s poor form on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said that Rohit Sharma played an odd shot to get out in that manner to become the player to score more ducks in the tournament. He reckons that these kinds of poor records don’t suit a player of his caliber.
“Rohit’s dismissal was very interesting. The keeper came up and Rohit played an odd shot and got out for zero. One fact that he would not like at all because he now has the most ducks in this tournament’s history. 16 ducks for a player of his caliber – doesn’t suit him at all,” Aakash Chopra said.
Chopra also blamed Ishan Kishan and Cameron Green for their shot selection against the four-time champions and lauded Nehal Wadhera for his excellent batting against CSK and also pointed out Suryakumar Yadav’s trouble against Left-arm spinners in recent times.
“Ishan Kishan also played an ordinary shot. Tushar Deshpande hit the ball on Cameron Green’s stumps. Nehal Wadhera was very, very good. Suryakumar Yadav was good till the time he was there. He has difficulties against left-arm spin. (Ravindra) Jadeja hit the ball on his stumps.”
Mumbai Indians batters displayed a poor batting performance against the formidable Chennai Super Kings bowling attack as they picked up wickets in the regular intervals to put pressure on the five-time champions’ batters to restrict them to 130-8 at the end of 20 overs.
The Most Valuable Player Has To Be Matheesha Pathirana – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra heaped praise on Chennai Super Kings speedster Matheesha Pathirana for his match-winning spell against Mumbai Indians to pick up three important wickets in the death over to restrict the run flow in the final overs and also named his Lasith Malinga 2.0.
“The most valuable player has to be Matheesha Pathirana. You can call him Lasith Malinga lite or Lasith Malinga 2.0. His release point has gone even below Malinga. If he goes below that, it will be a no-ball,” Aakash Chopra added.
Pathirana is having a good season with the ball for Chennai Super Kings picking up ten wickets in seven games at economy at 7.60 bowling the tough end overs for his side. The four-time champions registered their 6th victory in the league stage to move second in the points table.