Mohit Sharma has been the story of IPL 2023. From winning the purple cap for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2014 and representing India at the T20 and ODI World Cups, a slump in form saw him losing his spot in the national team and then he went unsold at the auctions for two consecutive seasons.
Last season, he was called by newbies Gujarat Titans to be their net bowler. Mohit worked with their bowlers and was the franchise win the IPL title in maiden season.
Ashish Nehra, the head coach at GT, was impressed with his former India teammate and they bought him at the auction last December. He repaid the faith with 27 wickets in 14 matches to finish as the joint-second highest wicket-taker of IPL 2023.
Such was his performance throughout the season that he was entrusted by GT captain Hardik Pandya to bowl the difficult overs towards the end of innings.
In the IPL 2023 final, he was asked to defend 13 runs in the last over of Chennai Super Kings’ chase. The 34-year-old nearly aced the challenge after bowling four excellent deliveries, one of them a dot ball.
And then it went downhill. Ravindra Jadeja, the batter, smashed a straight six and then guided a low full toss to fine leg for the winning boundary leaving Mohit heartbroken as others lined up to console him.
“I couldn’t sleep. Sochta raha kya alag karta joh match jeet jaate (Kept wondering what could I do differently that we would have won). What if I could have bowled this ball or that ball? It’s not a nice feeling now. Somewhere something is missing but I’m trying to move on,” Mohit told The Indian Express.
“I ran and tried to bowl (yorker) again. I just wanted to be focussed and back myself. Whole IPL I have done that. The ball landed where it shouldn’t have and Jadeja got his bat. I tried, I tried my best,” he said.
Mohit says he practiced for such situations during the nets and knew what needed to be done when the challenge finally was thrown to him.
“My mind was very clear in what I wanted to do. In the nets, I had practiced such situations and I have been in such scenarios before too. So I said let me bowl all balls yorkers and was backing my instinct,” he said.
Despite the late blip, Mohit is proud of his season pointing out how former BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary advised him to continue playing.
“I was picked from nowhere. I remember speaking to Ani bhai before the season what shall I do? Shall I continue or not. He had said I should try to play. I had come with no expectation and just have continued to work hard. My work ethic has remained the same. I don’t know what lies ahead, but I have enjoyed my journey,” Mohit said.
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