IPL 2016: Rating the captains of the 8 IPL teams

5. Rohit Sharma: Mumbai Indians – 6.5/10

Rohit Sharma’s failures in the first innings this season coincided with the team’s failures as well

The two-time champions, who were defending their crown this season had a topsy-turvy run, to say the least, and ultimately they failed to make it to the playoffs. Their fortunes drew a striking similarity to their captain, Rohit Sharma’s form with the bat. Just 2 of their 7 victories came while batting first and 6 of their 7 losses came while batting first. Interestingly, Rohit Sharma’s batting averages this year were 13.57 and 44.45 while batting in the 1st and the second innings respectively. Clearly, the team suffered whenever Rohit failed to connect with the bat in the first innings.

This wasn’t the only domain wherein Rohit couldn’t do as well as he would have liked to, as the team also saw some of their tried and tested performers warming the bench throughout the tournament. In the quest of unearthing new talents, namely Krunal Pandya and Nitish Rana, Rohit overlooked seasoned campaigners like Corey Anderson and Martin Guptill even though the likes of Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler were having an ordinary season. Their batting faltered on several occasions, especially while batting first, and eventually resulted in their campaign being cut short at the group stages.