'Things are slipping away...' - Rohit Sharma Gets a Wake-Up Call from Sanjay Manjrekar

"Things are slipping away" from the veteran batsman, who has reached a stage in his career where he must "push himself every morning," according to former India player Sanjay Manjrekar, who has drawn a bleak picture of Rohit Sharma's present condition. After being out for eight in the team's most recent game against the Gujarat Titans on Saturday, the Mumbai Indians star has struggled in the first two games of the current Indian Premier League.

On JioStar, Manjrekar said, "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."

Sanjay Manjrekar's reality check to Rohit Sharma:

Manjrekar examined the Mumbai Indians' batting performance in the previous two games and stated, "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. Apart from that, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav, along with Robin Minz and some of the other players, form the batting lineup. However, to me, it still looks a little unconvincing. And a lot of them rely on pitches where the ball comes onto the bat nicely. There's pace and bounce, and even in that chase where they needed 12 or 13 runs, if it had been at Wankhede Stadium, they would have likely come very close to the target"

Despite their early setbacks, Manjrekar maintained his optimism about the Mumbai Indians' campaign. MI was halted at 160 for six on Saturday, falling short of the difficult goal of 197. He said, "Mumbai Indians didn't look in the race when they lost two wickets for 35. In comparison, the 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."

Watch this space for more cricket news.