Rohit Sharma makes a massive impact for Mumbai Indians, who need him now more than ever

The crowd went into a deafening roar that echoed the evening skies of Mumbai when Suryakumar Yadav, the stand-in skipper for the Mumbai Indians in yesterday’s game against the Lucknow Super Giants, made the announcement that was long overdue.

“Our very own Rohit Sharma is back.”

And he was back in grand fashion. In a 143-run opening stand with Ryan Rickelton, his 44-ball 84 set the tone for his side as MI got a very, very valuable victory against LSG to keep their marginal hopes of making the play-offs alive.

Rohit has seldom scored poorly in the IPL. In the 18 seasons he has graced the competition, he has failed to breach the 350-run mark only five times. That is an absurd level of consistency for any other player in the league. For Rohit, though, it is just another case of business as usual.

The five matches Rohit was out of the side due to a hamstring injury, suffered while batting against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, felt like a lifetime for MI. And goodness me, they have crumbled in spectacular fashion in his absence, losing games at will, nothing seemingly going right, with Rohit in the midst of it all watching helplessly from the sidelines as opposition teams continued to pile on the agony one game after another.

So when Rohit walked out to bat as an Impact Sub after LSG piled on what was a formidable 228 on the board, it was not lost on him that his side needed a record run chase in franchise history to attain those two points.

He started off rather streakily, understandable because of the time he was out of the game for. A streaky edge that went for four, a daunting match-up against Mohsin Khan, who has had the better measure of the great man, meant that Rohit started off in a measured way with a run-a-ball 15, while Rickelton gladly took the mantle of the aggressor from the other end.

The LSG bowlers had bowled to him with a plan in those early exchanges. Bowl full rather than short, dry out his penchant for playing the pull shots. And they were fairly successful, until Avesh Khan walked in to bowl.

That is where the game changed, and Rohit emerged from the shackles like a man who was never away from the action for a fleeting second. Out came the pulls, the flicks, and those sensational drives over point, as if this was a man playing a video game.

None of the bowlers escaped his wrath. M Siddharth was clobbered over long-on. Mohammed Shami was dispatched with disdain, while Mohsin was also not spared by Rohit’s willow, which was now moving with the same skill and precision as an artist’s paintbrush.

By the time he departed, Rohit had more or less set the foundation from where MI could just not drop the game. Mumbaicha Raja came back to a triumphant return and showed the crowd and his team a side of the game that could have been so different had he not missed those five games.

In the three games that MI have won so far, two of them have featured match-defining knocks from Rohit: the 79 he scored against the Kolkata Knight Riders in their season-opener, and yesterday’s blitz against LSG.

It might be a stretch too far to say that MI will make the play-offs this season given the absurd odds that they face, but Rohit’s return up top definitely gives them one less headache in terms of team combination.

Having watched the kingdom and dynasty he built get dismantled brick by brick, layer by layer, Rohit in his first match back provided the impact for MI that was much more massive in its magnitude than just the two points on offer.

His side needs him now more than ever in what could be a season-defining last four games for an MI team going through a huge identity crisis this season. And by the looks of it, Rohit looks ready to carry them once again.