Rohit Sharma's Form, Death Bowling Concern For Mumbai Indians Ahead Of IPL Tie vs RCB

With the race for playoffs intensifying, captain Rohit Sharma's form with the bat and bowling in the death overs will be a huge concern for hosts Mumbai Indians when they meet Royal Challengers Bangalore in a mid-table IPL clash in Mumbai on Tuesday. With 184 runs in 10 matches at a forgettable average of 18.39 and a solitary half-century, Sharma is enduring a second consecutive poor season with the bat. For the sixth-placed Mumbai Indians to move up in the points table, it is imperative that their best batter in the line-up fires.

Sharma's role in this IPL has been to provide brisk starts at the top, and at times he has had some success too, but consistency has deserted the right-arm batter whose early dismissal in huge chases has only added pressure on a relatively new batting line-up, which fortunately, from MI's point of view, has delivered too.

Mumbai Indians' head coach Mark Boucher admitted a few games ago that consistency could get compromised if any batter goes out of his way to look for runs, but for Sharma, one of the highest run-getters in the IPL, it is becoming a pattern.

In last year's IPL, which also was MI's poorest in terms of performance as they finished last, Sharma averaged a little over 19 while scoring 268 runs in 14 matches.

However, with Sharma not firing at the top, MI have had the likes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Cameron Green consolidating in the middle while Tilak Varma and Tim David have also found their groove as finishers late in the order.

MI tried taking pressure off Sharma by sending him at No. 3 in their last game against Chennai Super Kings, but it was a move that worked for none of the parties involved. Sharma endured his second consecutive duck and fourth single-digit