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 doubt whether they will last another 18 months in international cricket. The two titans of Indian cricket ruled the first week of the league and ensured it got off to a grand start. While Kohli smashed a breathtaking 38-ball 69 to keep Royal Challengers Bengaluru 202 not out against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bengaluru on Saturday night, a day later Rohit was even more brutal at the Wankhede Stadium against a hapless Kolkata Knight Riders attack. With the home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium adoring him and applauding him all the way, the 38-year-old blasted 78 balls from 38 balls, including six sixes and as many fours, to help Mumbai Indians stage their highest run chase in the IPL, making a mockery of a one-year losing streak and 2×1 2×1. first match of IPL.
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Angkrish Raghuvanshi only focused on team winsBoth the aging modern-day greats seem to play from muscle memory in white-ball cricket, which begins when a batsman spends years at the crease.The beauty of Rohit’s stupendous knock on Sunday night was how he executed his strokes without the slightest fuss, especially in the offside when he and his teammate Ryan Rickelton (81 off 43 balls) were in full cry, adding 148 off just 72 balls to seal the game, the set and the match for MI.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. Still, he didn’t look remotely rusty in his first match of ’18 in the IPL, but seemed to be operating on a different plane. From the start, he dominated the KKR bowlers who looked like lambs for slaughter in the lion’s den. Unleashing nice inside-out lofted drives over extra cover, and his signature pull shots and cross-batted swings to deep mid-wicket.Rohit brought the trio of Vaibhav Arora, Zimbabwean pacer Blessing Muzarabani, Kartik Tyagi up to pace.In the fifth over, he got stuck into struggling spinner Varun Chakravarthy, driving the spinner for a four and a six through covers before lobbing the ball over backward square leg for another four.At the end of the over, he galloped to a 23-ball fifty – his landmark 50th half-century in the IPL and also his fastest ever in the League. Only Virat Kohli (72), David Warner (66) and Shikhar Dhawan (53) have scored more IPL fifties than the 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,” boasted MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene at the post-match press conference after MI’s six-wicket win on Sunday.While Rohit now only plays one format and only featured in the ODI against New Zealand in January, he has left no stone unturned in his preparations for the IPL. He reported to the MI camp earlier this year and spent long hours at the nets facing his MI captain Hardik Pandya and other pacers. In the lead up to the opener, MI looked in good shape at the nets and hit some trademark big shots. “He was fresh. I think after so many years of having him since the first day of camp, he played really good match practice games. We had a lot of simulations for him, mainly to get him going and I was pretty happy with the way he was hitting the ball…I thought he was hitting great,” Jayawardene said.Jayawardene said that Rohit was enjoying the phase of his career when he was not burdened with the responsibility of captaincy.“It’s relaxed him. He thinks a lot more calmly. He’s not a leader (so) there’s less pressure on him. That happens; it’s happened to me in the last few years as well when I went to play 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’re in that mode, you have the freedom that we’ve seen with Ro the last couple of years. And we encourage him to go and do it, and the rest of the team supports him in that, and I’m pretty happy about that.”In the end, it took a brilliant effort from Anukul Roy, who sprinted back from the middle and dived to catch the ball to prevent Rohit from reaching his century. Over the years, the Indian superstar has endured a lean IPL, perishing too early while trying to be ultra-aggressive from ball one. This time though, he seems to have found the right way to take down the bowlers and looks in the mood to roll back the years and show off his vintage class. Rohit, who has lost 15kg and looked much younger besides being leaner and fitter in the twilight of his career, looks hungry to take MI to IPL title No. 6. Sunday’s ‘special’ was clearly a class act warning shot to all bowlers in the tournament.
