Social media users urged Team India skipper Rohit Sharma to retire from cricket's shortest format after the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US after his miserable run for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) continued during the weekend.

Netizens questioned “selfless” Rohit Sharma's intent during his innings against KKR as his knock was extremely slow compared to IPL standards.

Rohit Sharma's supporters have often hailed his aggressive approach at the top of the order, dubbing him “selfless.”

Contrary to assertions of his fans, Rohit Sharma has had a torrid time at the crease, consuming too many balls before getting out in multiple games.

The Nagpur-born cricketer, who hit a century during the initial part of the cash-rich league, barely scored runs in the last 6-7 games. On Saturday, he looked out of sorts, as he was dismissed cheaply for 19 off 24 balls.

After rain reduced the clash between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders to a 16-over contest, the latter put up 157/7 on the board, with Venkatesh Iyer (42 off 21 balls) and Nitish Rana (33 off 23 deliveries) being the top two contributors.

With a steep target to chase, Mumbai Indians needed a blistering start, which they did as Ishan Kishan went after the KKR bowlers, smashing them for five boundaries and two sixes in his quickfire innings of 40 off 22 deliveries. However, once Sunil Narine dismissed the young southpaw, things went downhill for the former five-time champions.

The problems of Mumbai Indians mounted as Rohit Sharma failed to get on top of the KKR bowlers. Instead, he allowed pressure to build, leading to his departure for 19 off 24 balls.

As Rohit Sharma left the run chase of the visitors in tatters, he faced brutal trolling on the microblogging site with netizens taking potshots at him with acronyms like “Vadapav” and “selfless” intent merchant.

Others labeled him a “fraud” and the world's most “irrelevant” cricketer.

Some even questioned his appointment as Team India's skipper for the forthcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US.

On the other hand, a few mocked Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar, and Harsha Bhogle for not commenting on Rohit Sharma's torrid run in the IPL.

It is worth mentioning that these cricket experts have criticized Virat Kohli's below-par strike rate in a couple of IPL games.

Moreover, Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli were engaged in an indirect war of words with the latter slamming the former for raising questions about his T20 game.

Like Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar was critical of Virat Kohli's approach in the middle overs in IPL.

Furthermore, Sanjay Manjrekar dropped him from his 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup.

Their “agenda” against Virat Kohli returned to haunt them on X, with the Delhi-born cricketer's admirers pointing fingers at their storied silence about Rohit Sharma's figures in the 17th season of the IPL.

Rohit Sharma's critics didn't even spare his wife Ritika Sajdeh as they accused the cricketer of deploying her to create a fake buzz around him.

For all those people who are unaware, Ritika Sajdeh is a top-level sports agent, who is deeply associated with Public Relations management firms, often blamed for the management of Rohit Sharma's image despite his negative performances on the field.

Cricket lovers pointed out that though Rohit Sharma's performance in the IPL has been below standards, the experts have kept mum on the subject, and all this was done at Ritika Sajdeh's behest.

In 13 games of the current edition of the IPL, Rohit Sharma has only managed to score 349 runs at an average of 29.08. But what's worrying experts is that he's struggled to get going in his last 6-7 matches.

Previously, the legendary Yuvraj Singh called Rohit Sharma to hang up his boots in T20s.

“As you get older people start talking about your age and they forget about your for. These guys have been great players for India, and they deserve to go (retire) when they want,” Yuvraj Singh told ICC.

“I would like to see more younger players in the T20 format because it gets the load off them (experienced players) playing 50-over (ODIs) and Test matches. After this (T20) World Cup I would like to see a lot of younger guys come into the team and make the T20 side for the next World Cup,” the 2007 T20 World Cup winner added.

India's schedule at the 2024 T20 World Cup in the US and West Indies

India vs Ireland – June 5 in New York

India vs Pakistan – June 9 in New York

India vs USA – June 12 in New York

India vs Canada – June 15 in Florida