After 10-year wait, India skipper’s first Ranji outing lasts a mere 19 balls
MUMBAI: Things seem to be going from bad to worse for Rohit Sharma, whose poor form must be of serious concern to the Ajit-Agarkar-headed national selection committee, which has named him India’s captain for the home ODI series against England and the Champions Trophy next month.
Rohit’s return to the Ranji Trophy after nearly a decade lasted barely for half an hour as he was dismissed after mistiming a pull off Jammu & Kashmir pacer Umar Nazir at the Mumbai Cricket Association‘s Sharad Pawar Academy in BKC, after managing to score only three runs off 19 balls on the morning of Day One.
It was another poor outing for the out-of-form 37-year-old whose desperate search to rediscover his form must now await the second innings.
After scratching around, during which the impressive Nazir repeatedly beat him and even struck him on the glove once on a pitch where the ball was moving around, India’s ODI & Test captain perished to a horrible shot in the sixth over.
Attempting a pull off a harmless, slightly short ball pitched outside the off-stump, he only managed a leading edge that J&K captain Paras Dogra easily caught at mid-off.
This is third time this season that Rohit has been dismissed in this fashion. New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry (at the Wankhede in Mumbai) and Pat Cummins (at the MCG in Melbourne) have dismissed the ageing star in a similar fashion.
To accommodate Rohit and the other India stars for this match, Mumbai had to drop their season’s success story, opener Ayush Mhatre (408 runs in 5 matches, with two centuries in his debut Ranji season).
Rohit has been in the midst of a horror run with the bat, spread across the home Test series against New Zealand, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
