Manjrekar sounds alarm on Rohit Sharma’s form: "Things are slipping away"

Former India player and broadcaster Sanjay Manjrekar has expressed concerns over Rohit Sharma’s current form, believing that “things are slipping away” for the senior batter now. Manjrekar pointed out that Mumbai Indians star Rohit Sharma is at a stage in his career where he must push himself every morning to maintain his performance.

This came after Rohit’s poor performance with the franchise in IPL 2025. Last night, the Mumbai Indians lost to the Gujarat Titans by 36 runs. Even after the four seasons, the team has failed to beat Gujrat Titans at Ahmedabad. Rohit performed badly, scoring only 8 runs, adding to the team’s batting woes. Earlier, in the first match, Rohit went out on duck.

Manjrekar on Rohit Sharma

Manjrekar believes that Rohit needs a comeback, he’s at a stage where he has to work hard every day. “Rohit Sharma is clearly going through a phase. He’s not the Rohit Sharma of, say, three to four years ago. He’s at a stage in his career where he has to push himself every morning — train hard and be at his best — because things are slipping away for him. He’s still relying on his natural talent and instincts.” he said.

Mumbai Indians’ batting Challenges

Analyzing Mumbai Indians’ batting performance, Manjrekar mentioned, “Ryan Rickelton, being a South African, will take time to adjust to Indian pitches. Very few South African batters, barring AB de Villiers and Heinrich Klaasen, have truly flourished on Indian pitches. So, we’ll have to give him time.” While Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, and other players form part of the lineup, Manjrekar feels the batting looks a bit unconvincing as it relies heavily on pitches that favour batsmen where the ball comes onto the bat nicely.

The match against Gujarat Titans

In their match against Gujarat Titans, Mumbai Indians were chasing a target of 197 but fell short, scoring only 160 for six. Manjrekar highlighted that Mumbai Indians didn’t seem to be in the race after losing two early wickets. “Mumbai Indians didn’t look in the race when they lost two wickets for 35. In comparison, Gujarat Titans had around 129 runs for their first two wickets. After that, it seemed like Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav were trying to build a partnership. The challenge with building a partnership in a chase of over 190 is that the required run rate starts to suffer, and that’s exactly what happened. In the end, you have to say that Gujarat Titans batted better — I thought they got maybe 15 to 20 runs over par.” he added.

Optimism for Mumbai Indians

Lastly, Manjrekar remains optimistic about Mumbai Indians’ campaign. “The dew never came in, which made Mumbai’s job even more difficult. But despite all that, two losses are quite typical for Mumbai Indians. They still seem to be on the right track to go on and win the title.” he concluded.

Cricket Indian Premier League (IPL)Mumbai Indians Rohit Sharma