Rohit Sharma (Image credit: BCCI/IPL)
MUMBAI: The fire still burns in their bellies. The way Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have started in IPL-2026, few would wonder if they will last another 18 months in international cricket. The two giants of Indian cricket dominated the first week of the league, ensuring a stunning start.
While Kohli smashed a breathtaking 38-ball 69 and was not part of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 202-run chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bengaluru on Saturday night, a day later Rohit was even more brutal at the Wankhede Stadium against the hapless Kolkata Knight Riders attack. With his home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium, adoring him, applauding him all the way, the 38-year-old smashed 78 off 38 balls, which included six sixes and a four, to help Mumbai Indians to their highest-ever run chase in the IPL making a mockery of a 221-run target and ending MI’s 14-year jinx of losing the first match in the IPL.
He watches
Angkrish Raghuvanshi focused only on the team’s victories
Both aging modern greats clearly play from muscle memory in white-ball cricket, which begins when a batsman spends years at the crease.The beauty of Rohit’s brilliant knock on Sunday night was the way he delivered his knocks without the slightest fuss, especially on the off-side where he and fellow opener Ryan Rickleton (81 off 43 balls) were in full shriek, adding 148 in just 72 balls to seal the match, setting up the game for MI.
The way Rohit batted, it hardly looked like the veteran batsman was playing a competitive T20 match ten months later – he last played in that format in the second qualifier against Punjab Kings on June 1 in IPL-2025. However, in his first match in his 18th year in the Indian Premier League, he did not look rusty, but appeared to be operating on a different level. He dominated KKR’s bowlers, who looked like lambs to be slaughtered in the lion’s den, from the start.
Unleash exhilarating inside-out drives over extra cover, pull shots and cross-cut swipes to deep mid-wicket.Rohit tore apart the trio of Vaibhav Arora, Zimbabwe’s Blessing Muzarabani, Kartik Tyagi.In the fifth over, he stuck in the struggling off-spinner Varun Chakravarthy, driving the spinner for a four and a six through the covers before flicking the ball over backward square leg for another four.By the end of the Powerplay, he had run to a 23-ball fifty – this was his 50th half-century mark in the IPL and also the fastest ever in the league. Only Virat Kohli (72), David Warner (66) and Shikhar Dhawan (53) have scored more IPL fifties than a Mumbaikar. “Rohit Sharma seems to be aging like a fine wine. He last played a T20 match in June 2025, (and) the shots he played tonight… it’s amazing to watch,” praised MI coach Mahela Jayawardene in the post-match press conference after MI’s six-wicket win on Sunday.While Rohit now only plays in one format, and only featured in the ODIs against New Zealand in January, he has left no stone unturned while preparing for the IPL. He reported to the MI camp early this year and has spent long hours in the nets, facing off against MI captain Hardik Pandya and other players. In the lead-up to MI’s opener, he looked good in the net, hitting some trademark big shots. “It was refreshing. I think after having so many years with me from day one of camp, he played some really good practice games.”
“We had a lot of simulations of him, especially to get him going, and I was very happy with the way he was batting the ball… I thought he batted brilliantly,” Jayawardene said.Jayawardene said that Rohit was enjoying a phase in his career where he was not burdened with the responsibility of leading the team.“It has freed him up. He thinks more calmly. He is not the captain (so there is) less pressure on him. It happens; it has also happened to me in my last few years when I went and played cricket.”“You’re training less, but your muscle memory is working and you go with the flow. You know what the bowlers are trying to do and once you’re in that mode, you have the freedom that we’ve noticed in Rowe in the last couple of years. We’re encouraging him to go and do that, the rest of the team is supporting him to do that and I’m very happy about that.”It eventually took a brilliant fielding effort from Anukul Roy, who sprinted back from mid-on and jumped to catch the ball, to prevent Rohit from reaching his 100th century.
Over the years, the Indian star has suffered from poor IPLs, perishing too early while trying to be too aggressive from the first ball. However, this time around he seems to have found the right way to beat the bowlers and seems to be in a mood to rewind the years and show his old class.
Having lost 15 kg and looking younger, apart from becoming leaner and fitter in the later years of his career, Rohit looks hungry to take MI to IPL title No. 6. Sunday night’s ‘special’ was clearly a warning shot by the class for all the bowlers in the tournament.