IPL 2025: MCA approves Rohit Sharma stand at Wankhede stadium; Sharad Pawar, Ajit Wadekar also to get similar honours

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has reportedly given the green light to name a stand after Mumbai Indians’ veteran batsman Rohit Sharma.

In what can be described as a move befitting one of Indian cricket’s modern greats, the MCA took this decision during the body's Apex Council meeting today, April 15. 

The body will name the current Divecha Pavilion Level 3 as the “Rohit Sharma Stand”.

The MCA also approved proposals to name Grand Stand Level 3 of the stadium as the Sharad Pawar Stand and Grand Stand Level 4 as the Ajit Wadekar Stand.

Furthermroe, the MCA has decided to rename the match day office at the MCA Pavilion as the “MCA Office Lounge” in memory of the late Amol Kale

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This propels the ‘Hitman’ to an elite group of cricketers who have been honoured at the Wankhede Stadium.

The East Stand at the Wankhede is named after legendary opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar while Vijay Merchant’s name occupies the West Stand.

The North stand has been named after Dilip Vengsarkar and Sachin Tendulkar, who is widely considered the greatest batsman to play for India. Tendulkar also has a life-sized statue inside the stadium.

This recognition has been coming for a while now as Sharma has had a great 9 months as captain of the Indian white ball teams.

In June 2024, he led India to the T20 World Cup title in the Caribbean and followed it up with a win in the ICC ODI Champions Trophy earlier this year in the UAE. This is in addition to leading India to the ICC ODI World Cup in late 2023, where the team unfortunately failed in the final hurdle.

IPL 2025

MI’s hitman has been unable to bring the magic he’s known for to this year’s Indian Premier League as he is currently having a torrid time with the bat.

In 5 matches so far in this IPL season, he has scored only 56 runs at a paltry average of 11.20 and at a strike rate of 136.59. And bowlers, especially spinners, seem to have found his Achilles heel, which was exploited by Delhi Capital’s leg spinner Vipraj Nigam in the previous game.

Sharma was dismissed playing the sweep, a shot that has brought him very low returns in the recent past. According to CricViz, the MI batter’s last 30 conventional Sweep shots against spinners has yielded him only 52 runs at an average of 7.4. This sample size has also got him out 7 times.

Regardless of his current troubles, Sharma has a rich legacy in Indian cricket and in the IPL.

He has the most number of IPL titles, with 6 to his name, and has captained Mumbai Indians to 5 titles, which is the joint highest for a captain in this tournament, alongside Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

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