Rohit Sharma usually scores heavily in the IPL – he has failed to cross 350 just five times in 18 seasons before IPL 2026. Even in his new avatar, going for broke from the start, he hasn’t failed to hit a lot of runs, tallying 417 from 14 games in 2024 and 418 from 15 games in 2025.

Needless to say, then, that Rohit missing five games between April 12 and May 4 crippled MI. And on Monday night, he returned with a bang, hitting 84 in 44 balls against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

“Good to see him striking the ball so well and going through the line, playing those shots over the covers and even against spin. I think he’s just made up his mind to get into that habit of hitting those sixes, which he has done quite well, and it was on full display tonight,” Sanjay Bangar said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show after Rohit and Ryan Rickelton (83 in 32 balls) put together 143 runs for the first wicket in just under 11 overs.

Rohit hit seven sixes to Rickelton’s eight: three in the powerplay against Mohammed Shami and Avesh Khan, five against pace overall, and two against the left-arm spin of M Siddharth.

“Teams from here on will look at openers who can hit sixes inside the first six overs, and that’s where the T20 game is heading,” Bangar said. “In this particular season, and even in the previous season, you’ve got enough evidence of that style of batsmanship actually setting up wins for the team, and those have been far more impactful rather than those coming at the lower end of the innings. That is a paradigm shift.”

It’s a shift Rohit has been a face of, one of the veterans of the game changing his style of play effectively to stay in touch with the modern game. With Rickelton and Quinton de Kock as the other senior openers in the side, MI did have batters who could do a similar job in Rohit’s absence because of a hamstring issue. But two overseas spots being taken away right up top is rarely ideal. As a result, of the three matches de Kock played in, Rickelton featured only in one; Danish Malewar got in for the other two.

“They were not able to play Quinton and Rickelton together because they needed an extra bowler when it comes to overseas players, because your Indian bowlers were not doing well,” Veda Krishnamurthy said. “Deepak Chahar was not looking at his best, so they needed Trent Boult, but Trent Boult didn’t deliver as well. So the experience at the top is very important.

“Your openers need to be good, and the openers that they tried, it was either Rickelton or Quinton de Kock opening with Danish Malewar. That kind of hurts because you talk about like-to-like replacements – you do not have an opener [in the squad], an experienced opener, an Indian opener [like Rohit].”

Rohit can hardly be the quickfix for all of MI’s problems.

They are down at No. 9 on the points table, and had won just one of the four games they had played before Rohit went out. Of their three wins so far, though, two have had big Rohit innings: 78 in 38 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and the innings on Monday night. As MI try to put in a late dash to try and get into the playoffs, they will hope Rohit keeps the good work going.