Rohit, India’s Test and ODI captain, who has been in poor form, had all the attention at the start of the game as he confirmed his presence in the game with a nod. at last week’s Champions Trophy team announcement press conference. Wearing a white floppy hat and sunglasses, Rohit was relaxing before the game, joking with his teammates as they warmed up with some head volleyball. Were staying.
It was a cold winter morning in Mumbai, with relief after a week when the temperature reached the mid-30s. And J&K’s opening bowlers made sure to make use of the early-morning start.
Rohit managed to drive Nabi’s ball through cover in the next over, but was once again silenced by Mir, who got rewarded on his 17th ball. He bowled a length ball at the fifth stump, which showed a hint of movement away from the right-handed batsman. Rohit looked to play his trademark pick-up shot at midwicket, but only managed to edge it to the off side. Paras Dogra ran a few yards to his left from mid-off to extra cover, called out loud and clear, and thrashed Rohit to end his stay in the middle.
The short pause in between meant that Rohit’s poor performance in red-ball cricket continued. In five home Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand on home soil last year, he had just one half-century to show – against New Zealand in Bengaluru – with four single-figure scores in ten innings. He had only one double-digit score in five innings in Australia, where he played three of the five Test matches. He finished the 2024–25 Test season with a batting average of 10.93.
In fact, Rohit’s first-class batting average of 10.43 in 16 innings in the 2024-25 season is the second lowest for any batsman since 2006 (for a minimum of 15 innings while batting in the top six). England’s Haseeb Hameed averaged 9.44 in 18 innings in the 2018 season.
Jaiswal fell before Rohit. Nabi managed to get his line right against the left-handed batsman, leading to a few balls going away. One of them missed the outside edge of Jaiswal’s bat – a slow appeal was given not out. On the next ball – the third ball of the third over – Nabi got a length ball to flick back viciously; Jaiswal was caught off guard, and was beaten on the inside edge and hit on the back leg just in front of the middle and leg. He was deep inside the crease and it took some time for the umpire to raise his finger. Jaiswal, who was one of India’s most successful batsmen in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, has 4 runs to his name.
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