IPL 2023: I knew he had skills and the character to do the job for us – Rohit Sharma lauds Akash Madhwal’s performance

Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma hailed Akash Madhwal’s performance after their comprehensive 81-run victory against Lucknow Super Giants at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Wednesday. The 29-year-old returned with impressive figures of 5-5 in the 3.3 overs as he breathed down the neck of the opposition with his accuracy.

This is the joint fourth-best bowling figures in the IPL and Madhwal also claimed the best bowling returns by an uncapped player in the IPL.

Madhwal accounted for Prerak Mankad, Ayush Badoni, Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi and Mohsin Khan in his fine spell of bowling. Furthermore, the right-arm pacer bowled 17 dot balls out of the 21 balls he bowled.

Madhwal was right on the money and reaped rewards for the same. In fact, the right-arm pacer had returned with figures of 4-37 in a must-win match against Sunrisers Hyderabad to help his team qualify for the playoffs.

Rohit said he had the belief in Akash Madhwal’s abilities and he tries to create a positive atmosphere for the young players in order to get the best out of them.

Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “That is what we have done over the years. People don’t expect us to do what we have done, but we managed to. He (Akash) was the part of the team last year as a support bowler, and once Jofra was gone and I knew he had skills and the character to do the job for us. Over the years we have seen many guys coming in from Mumbai Indians and playing for India.”

He added, “It is important to make them (youngsters) feel special and make them feel part of the team, my job is to just make them comfortable in the middle. They are very clear in their roles about what they need to do for the team and that’s what you want. As a team we enjoyed it (fielding). Good to see everyone contributing on the field. Coming to Chennai, we knew whole team needs to come to the party. At Wankhede you need one or two brilliant performances, but here it is a different ball game.”

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians posted a par score of 182 runs on the board after Rohit Sharma decided to bat first. Cameron Green top-scored with 41 runs whereas SKY and Nehal Wadhera also played crucial knocks of 33 and 23 runs respectively.

Mumbai Indians will take on Gujarat Titans in the second qualifier at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Friday.