Rohit Sharma Recalls His First IPL Bid

One of the most successful IPL captains Rohit Sharma started his IPL playing for Deccan Chargers. Rohit Sharma’s IPL journey has been an interesting one and the player recalled the first bid of his domestic tournament. Deccan Chargers, the 2009 IPL winners picked up Rohit Sharma for an amount of $750,000. Coming from a middle-class family, the current Mumbai Indians skipper said that he was wondering which car he wanted to buy.

Speaking ahead of the IPL 2023, Rohit Sharma said, “Firstly, I didn’t even know how much $750,000 is. A thing like the auction had never happened for us before and nobody even heard of it. My number came very late in the auction, probably after one and half hour. After I was sold, I was told that I was getting $750,000, I think it was 3 to 3.5 crore. But I was really happy and thought about which car should I buy. That was the planning I was doing! I was only 20 years old at that time.”

I was really happy and thought about which car should I buy: Rohit Sharma

In 2011, Sharma went back into the auction pool and was taken by Mumbai Indians at a price of $2 million. The 2013 IPL changed the fortunes of Rohit Sharma after he replaced legend Ricky Ponting as the skipper for the Mumbai Indians franchise. Under the leadership of Sharma, the team won 5 trophies in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020. However, since the 2022 IPL mega auctions, Mumbai Indians have looked a bit out of touch. The franchise last year lost Suryakumar Yadav to injury for that season. It was the team’s worst season in the IPL with Rohit Sharma losing 8 matches in a row.

In addition to below-average team performance, Sharma himself has been struggling to get some runs in the IPL. Since the 2017 IPL, Rohit Sharma has not once crossed an average of 30. Last year his average was the lowest in the tournament at 19.14. The new season of IPL will bring new challenges for the skipper and the management with players like Pollard retiring. Mumbai Indians will begin their IPL 2023 journey by locking horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 2.