Mumbai: The fire in his belly is still burning today. the way Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma With the IPL starting in 2026, few will question whether they can last another 18 months in international cricket. The two titans of Indian cricket ruled the first week of the league, ensuring it got off to a flying start. While Kohli scored an unbeaten 69 off 38 balls to chase down Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 202 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bengaluru on Saturday night, Rohit was even more brutal against a hapless Kolkata Knight Riders attack at the Wankhede Stadium a day later. With his home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium applauding him all round, the 38-year-old scored a 38-ball 78, which included six sixes and as many fours. Mumbai Indians Making a mockery of the 221-run target and ending MI’s 14-year jinx of losing their first IPL match, the biggest ever chase in the IPL.
Clearly, both aging modern-day greats are playing from muscle memory in white-ball cricket, which kicks in when a batsman spends years at the crease.The beauty of Rohit’s brilliant innings on Sunday night was the way he executed his strokes without the least fuss, especially on the offside when he and fellow opener Ryan Rickleton (81 off 43 balls) were in full cry, adding 148 off just 72 balls to seal the game, set and match.The way Rohit batted, it hardly looked like the veteran batsman was playing a competitive T20 match after ten months – he last played in the format in the second qualifier against Punjab Kings on June 1 in IPL-2025. Yet, in his first match of his 18th year in the IPL, he didn’t look remotely rusty, but seemed to be operating on a different plane. He dominated the KKR bowlers, who looked like lambs to the slaughter in the lion’s den, right from the start. Unleashing delightful inside-out lofted drives at extra cover and his trademark pull shots and cross-batted swipes at deep midwicket.Rohit tore through the pace trio of Vibhu Arora, Zimbabwe pacer Blessing Mazarabani, Karthik Tyagi.In the fifth over, he trapped the struggling spinner Varun Chakraborty, hitting the spinner for a four and a six before lobbing the ball over backward square leg for another four.By the end of the Powerplay, he had scored a 23-ball fifty – his 50th half-century in the IPL and his fastest ever century in the league. Only Virat Kohli (72), David Warner (66) and Shikhar Dhawan (53) have scored more IPL fifties than the Mumbaikar. “Rohit Sharma’s age looks like wine. He last played a T20 game in June 2025, (and) the shots he played tonight… it’s wonderful to see,” praised MI head coach Mahila Jayawardene at the post-match press conference after MI’s six-wicket win on Sunday.While Rohit only plays one format now, and only featured in the ODIs against New Zealand in January, he has left no stone unturned in his IPL preparations. He reported to the MI camp earlier this year and spent long hours at the nets facing his MI captain Hardik Pandya and other fast bowlers. In the lead up to MI’s opener, he looked in good nick at the nets, hitting some trademark big shots. “He was fresh. I think after all these years I’ve had him since the first day of camp, he played some really good match practice games. We had a lot of dummies for him, especially to get him going, and I was very happy, the way he was hitting the ball… I thought he batted brilliantly,” Jayawardene said.Jayawardene said that Rohit is enjoying a phase of his career where he is not burdened with the responsibility of captaincy.“It’s freed him up. He’s thinking more calmly. He’s not the leader (so) there’s less pressure on him. It happens; it happened to me in my last few years when I went and played franchise cricket.”“You practice less, but your muscle memory works and you just go with the flow. You know what the bowlers are trying to do and once you get into that mode, you have the freedom that we’ve seen in Ro over the last few years. And we encourage him to go for it, and the rest of the team is supporting him and I’m very happy with that.”It eventually drew a brilliant fielding effort from Anukul Roy, who ran backwards from mid-on and dived to catch the ball, preventing Rohit from reaching his century. Over the years, the Indian superstar has endured a lean IPL, trying to be ultra-aggressive with the ball and getting run down too early. This time, though, he seems to have found the right way to wear the bowlers down, and seems to be in a mood to roll back the years and show off his vintage class. Apart from shedding 15 kg and becoming lean and fit of his career, Rohit looks hungry to lead MI to IPL title number 6. Sunday night’s ‘special’ was clearly a warning shot from the class act to all bowlers in the tournament.
