'When You Compare Him With Virat Kohli...': Ex-Mumbai Indians Skipper Rohit Sharma's Biggest Challenge Highlighted Ahead Of IPL 2026

IPL 2026: It is an open secret that Rohit Sharma is currently in the last phase of his illustrious cricketing career. Rohit has led the Mumbai Indians to five (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020) IPL titles and is a stalwart of the cash-rich league. Rohit Sharma was succeeded by Hardik Pandya as the skipper of the franchise, but he is yet to deliver a trophy for the franchise.

There were speculations of the former skipper parting ways with the franchise, but the Mumbai Indians put the rumours with a social media post which went viral pretty quickly.

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Mohammad Kaif Highlights Rohit's Biggest Challenge

Strike rate and the amount of runs scored, these two factors have been talked about a lot as far as Rohit Sharma's IPL career is concerned. There is no denying the fact that Sharma has led the Mumbai Indians to five IPL titles, but he hasn't scored 600 or more runs in a single IPL season.

Rohit Sharma's best performance with the bat came in 2013 when he scored 538 runs. This was the same season when Rohit was appointed as the Mumbai Indians skipper and he led the franchise to their first IPL title. Ex-India player Mohammad Kaif feels that Rohit Sharma will need to score big in the upcoming season and he will be very hungry for runs.

'We talk about Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, but Rohit Sharma has not scored 700-800 runs in a season. When you compare him with Virat Kohli or some other batter, he doesn't score 600-700 runs. He scores in one or two matches and becomes the Man of the Match. So, the biggest test for him this time is to cross the 500-run or 600-run mark. He will be very hungry for runs in this IPL', said Kaif while speaking on his YouTube Channel.

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Rohit Sharma To Play South Africa ODIs Next

Rohit Sharma was recently seen in action in the India vs Australia series where he bagged the Player of the Series award, courtesy of his stellar batting performance in the series. Rohit also ended up becoming the number one-ranked ODI batter. The former India skipper will now be seen in action in the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa.