IPL 2023: ‘Rohit Sharma is a Quality Player,’ Says MI Head Coach Mark Boucher

Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher praised the captain Rohit Sharma, saying that he is a quality player and he drives the team towards the way management wants to play as well. However, Rohit-led Mumbai Indians lost Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2023 to the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) by 62 runs in Ahmedabad on May 26 as well. Despite the result, Boucher backed him, who has been going through the poor form with the bat, saying that he led the team from the front against GT as well.

“Rohit is a quality player. What I do think is that he led from the front in regards to driving toward the sort of way we wanted to play. And the captain is the best person to go out there and drive that vision as well,” Boucher said in the post-match press conference.

However, swashbuckling Gujarat Titans opener Shubman Gill smashed his third century in the IPL 2023 and helped his side to post a massive total of 233. In reply, Suryakumar Yadav’s crucial knock of 61 went in vain as Mumbai Indians lost to GT, who will face CSK in the final on 28. But, he also admitted that the target was too much for his side and he also revealed that they were unsettled after Ishan Kishan suffered a freak injury after colliding with teammate Chris Jordan as well.

IPL 2023: “233 I thought was a bit high, to be fair” – Mark Boucher

“It was a little bit unsettling because we weren’t quite sure how Ishan was going to go. Nehal (Wadhera) we knew that he could do the job, in the practice games that we played, he actually opened the batting and he played fairly aggressively, which we really needed; someone to go out and play that way. It didn’t come up for us but it’s T20 cricket. You got to adapt to the conditions and we were thrown a bit of a curveball, unsettled us a bit,” he again shared.

However, Nehal Wadhera opened MI’s innings alongside Rohit Sharma in place of Ishan Kishan. Mumbai Indians faced a second blow while Cameron Green retired hurt after being hit on his forearm by a ball from Hardik Pandya as well. He returned to bat but was eventually bowled by Josh Little as well. Gujarat Titans pace bowler Mohit Sharma picked up a five-wicket haul, including the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav, and Mumbai Indians were bundled out for 171 while chasing 233.

“We lost Nehal early. I think Green was the one that also unsettled us a bit, got a blow to the arm, and he came off, but thankfully he was able to go back out and bat for us and put us in a decent position up until sort of like the 15th over. Unfortunately, we just lost too many wickets and I think that is our downfall from the batting perspective. We gave it a good go right up until the 15th over. If one of our batters that were in there had batted right to the end, it might have been a lot closer than the end result,” Mark Boucher concluded.