IPL 2023: Flop XI from fifth week

After delivering action for more than a month, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has now entered its sixth week. In the 47th contest of IPL 2023, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clinched a five-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), in an intriguing last-over thriller at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, in Hyderabad. With this exciting clash, the fifth week of the marquee T20 event concluded with Gujarat Titans (GT) ending on the top of the points table for consecutive two weeks. 

In the upcoming weeks, competition will get stiff for the teams to advance to the Playoffs. Noting this fact, the sides will look to overcome their weaknesses to see themselves in the top four at the end of the round-robin stage. At the crucial stage of the league round, some players have given headaches to their teams as they failed to live up to the expectations in the fifth week.

Discussing more here is the flop XI from the fifth week of the IPL

1. Rohit Sharma

For Mumbai Indians (MI), the fifth week was marvellous as they pulled off 200+ targets in consecutive two matches. In both contests, sensational batting efforts from key batters helped Mumbai to come out stronger and rack up four points. Amidst these positive scenes, what came out as a concern for MI is their captain Rohit Sharma’s form.

Following 213 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in match 42 of the IPL, Sharma got dismissed in the second over of the innings, scoring only three runs off five balls. In the end, MI bagged the game with the plucky knocks of Suryakumar Yadav’s 55 (29) and Tim David’s match-finishing 45 (13) but Rohit’s failure on his birthday also became the talk of the town.

Following the incredible win over RR, MI’s next assignment was against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mohali, and here they got success in chasing 215 with the batting heroics of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav, respectively. However, what came out as negative from MI’s batting was Rohit’s performance. This time, the MI skipper fell to Rishi Dhawan in the first over on a duck.