'Challenges as a captain might have doubled for him': Ravi Shastri on Rohit Sharma's struggles in IPL 2023

With Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma's dwindling fortunes as captain, former Team India coach Ravi Shastri reckons his burden has increased. Shastri claimed that Rohit Sharma doesn't have the resources and the think-tank he had earlier.

Mumbai Indians slump to a six-wicket loss to the Chennai Super Kings

Rohit, the most successful IPL captain with five titles under his belt, has seen Mumbai Indians' graph go down in the last three seasons. The five-time champions failed to qualify for the playoffs in the last two seasons and are unlikely to do so this year after losing five out of their ten games. Mumbai's latest defeat came to the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday in an away game.

As far as Shastri is concerned, the 36-year-old's struggles as captain boil down to lack of potent resources, making it even harder to forge a formidable team combination.

"The resources that you had two or three years ago isn't quite the same. The challenges as a captain might have doubled for him. The work as a captain would have doubled as opposed to two years ago when everything was nice, set - go out there and do the job. And then comes the challenge of how do you get them [the team] going, how do you motivate that bunch, how do you create a combination, how do you see who is the best in that lot to fit in and deliver at a certain stage of the game," Shastri told ESPNcricinfo's Ravi & Raunak programme.

Rohit Sharma's poor form with the bat:

Keeping in mind Rohit Sharma's awful run with the willow, Shastri opined that batting has adversely impacted the tactician in him. The 60-year-old stated:

"If you start getting on a purple patch where you are scoring runs, the job as a captain becomes much easier, the body language on the field changes, that energy on the field is different as opposed to when you are not getting runs. You can go flat no matter who you are. That's where, as a captain, it is more important that your performances come into play. It is harder now because of the stage of his career, the kind of team that they have," the 60-year-old added:

The Indian captain has notched only one fifty this edition and has registered four single-figure scores in his last four innings.