‘I feared him, he gave me sleepless nights’: Gautam Gambhir on facing Rohit Sharma in IPL

Former two-time IPL winner with Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam Gambhir, picks Rohit Sharma as the player to give him sleepless nights in the tournament. Playing under and against a few top captains during his IPL tenure, Gautam has picked ex-MI captain Rohit to trouble him the most, pushing Gambhir to have more than one plan against him every time.

Speaking to Star Sports ahead of the 17th season of the Indian Premier League that begins in mid-March, Gautam opened up on his on-field battles against the current India captain.

Though Gautam has found success against some of the mentally toughest and most strategic players and captains in the cash-rich league, planning on removing Rohit as a batter kept him on his toes at all times.

"Rohit Sharma is the only player who has given me sleepless nights. No Chris Gayle, no AB de Villiers, no one. Only Rohit Sharma because I knew I had to have Plan A, Plan B and probably Plan C as well because if Rohit is in, I don't think anyone can control him. The only batsman I feared in the IPL was Rohit. I have never planned for any other batter in the IPL except Rohit Sharma,” Gautam said while speaking highly of Rohit.

Admitting to worrying about dismissing Rohit cheaply despite having some of the best names in T20 cricket in his ranks, Gautam said if a night before the game he had thought of Plan A, Rohit would better that the next day, leaving Gautam and everyone clueless on how to get him out.

"There have been times where I have seen the visuals; I would say fair enough, Plan A is fine, but with Rohit Sharma, probably one night before, I used to think, if this doesn't work, I have to get this, if this doesn't work, I have to get the other plan. If Sunil (Narine) bowls his four overs, who gonna bowl the next 16, and if I finish off Sunil early and Rohit is there, he can get 30 off one over as well," Gambhir said on Star Sports.

Tides changed with time

Although at one point in time Rohit came across as a destructive top-order batter, scoring heaps of runs at will, the veteran cricketer hasn’t performed enough with bat in the previous two seasons for any captain to feel worried about his presence at the crease.

While in IPL 2022, he scored just 268 runs at 19.14, Rohit hit just 332 runs in the following season at a shallow average of 20.75.

Moreover, Mumbai Indians have replaced Rohit with Hardik Pandya as the new captain ahead of IPL 2024.