"It awoke the dragon in him" - Former India pacer reflects on huge impact of Rohit Sharma being dropped twice in GT vs MI IPL 2025 Eliminator

Former India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) pacer Varun Aaron reckons that Rohit Sharma being dropped twice made the Mumbai Indians (MI) batter try his luck even harder in the IPL 2025 Eliminator against Gujarat Titans (GT). The Hitman ended up scoring 81 off 50, slamming nine fours and four sixes.

MI beat GT by 20 runs in the IPL 2025 Eliminator at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on Friday, May 30. Batting first after winning the toss, Mumbai put up 228-5 on the board and then restricted Gujarat to 208-6. MI will now face Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on June 1.

While Rohit ended up playing an excellent knock, he was dropped twice early in his innings. In the second over, the Hitman top-edged a pull off Prasidh Krishna, but Gerald Coetzee spilled a relatively simple chance at deep backward square leg. In the very next over, Rohit charged down the track and tried to heave Mohammed Siraj. He got a nick that was put down by Kusal Mendis.

The MI opener was in sublime form after the early reprieves and made GT pay dearly for their lapses. Speaking after the game, Aaron reflected on the how the dropped chances impacted Rohit and told ESPNcricinfo:

"After he got those couple of lives, it awoke the dragon in him. He was like, you know what, I am just going to go hell for leather and he batted really well. Especially that Sai Kishore over, those few sweeps he hit over square leg were just vintage Rohit Sharma. And if you are going to bowl short to Rohit Sharma, you should be praying to God. You can't bowl short to him."

During the same discussion, Tom Moody added that the early lives unlocked a bit of freedom within the batter's head. He elaborated:

"Regardless of the experience that Rohit Sharma has got, he's still going to his contest with a little bit of doubt and uncertainty. Once you get that lifeline, it unlocks that worry."

Apart from Rohit, Jonny Bairstow (47 off 22), Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 20), Tilak Varma (25 off 11) and skipper Hardik Pandya (22* off 9) also chipped in as MI posted a huge total on the board.

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Rohit Sharma achieved two significant milestones in IPL 2025 Eliminator

During his match-winning knock against GT, Rohit crossed the 7,000 run mark in his IPL career. He now has 7,038 runs from 266 innings at an average of 29.82 and a strike rate of 132.11, with two hundreds and 47 half-centuries. Only Virat Kohli (8,618) has scored more runs in the IPL.

The 38-year-old also completed 300 sixes in the IPL. He now has 302 maximums in the T20 league. West Indies legend Chris Gayle (357) is the only other batter with 300-plus sixes in the IPL.