Mumbai Indians slumped to their fourth loss of the IPL 2025 season on Monday, this time at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru. While the team continues to face problems across departments, especially in the fielding department, their opening stand has also been a consistent concern. Especially with Rohit Sharma failing to deliver in each of the four matches he has played so far. So far in the tournament, MI have averaged only 26 runs in the powerplay while losing 10 wickets across five matches. Addressing the issue after the defeat to RCB, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted that the team has underperformed with both bat and ball in the powerplay. “The powerplay is a concern for us with the ball and the bat. In the last few games as well, we were leaking too many runs with the ball in the powerplay as well. We got an early wicket today as well – first over – but then they counter-punched, played some good shots, and we just did not react well to that. These are the margins, and then they had a big sixth over, which really hurt us in that powerplay,” he said. 'I'm sure Rohit's been working on it' Jayawardene was also asked about Rohit Sharma’s poor returns in the tournament. In the match against RCB, Rohit got off to a bright start but once again fell to a left-arm pacer, this time Yash Dayal. In his IPL career, Rohit has now been dismissed 31 times by left-arm pacers. Also read: 'You need to keep evolving': Virat Kohli on his fastest IPL fifty since 2018 Jayawardene backed the former MI captain, saying that Rohit has been putting in the hard work. “Obviously, for right-handed batsmen.. the left-armers, it is a natural thing for a lot of opening batsmen and a lot of the right-handed batsmen. It's been there for many years. I can remember many teams doing the same thing, so it's just a natural angle, and then creating that space. But yeah, I'm sure Rohit's been working on it, he's been practicing hard, and he's a very experienced player,” he said. Jayawardene also credited Dayal for bowling a quality delivery that breached Rohit’s defence. “He was trying to give us a good start and he played some really good shots. Yash bowled a good ball, it was late swing and fuller, got through Rohit's defence. So I think when you have played the game for that long, I think you need to sometimes give credit to the bowlers as well. I wouldn't read into that too much, but yeah, I mean it's something that I'm sure that he will work hard on,” he added. Rohit Sharma has scored just 38 runs from four matches at an average of 9.50 and a strike rate of 131.03. Mumbai Indians are currently placed eighth in the points table with just one win from five matches. They next face Delhi Capitals on April 13 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.