It’s almost as if Rohit Sharma sometimes forgets that there is a stump microphone around. How else do you explain his voice getting captured more often than others? After warning his teammates not to ‘walk around in the garden’ in his own typical manner, the India captain nearly lost his voice while fielding on Day 4 during England’s second innings in the Visakhapatnam Test.
Rohit, in another stump-mic moment, was caught saying that his throat went for a toss with all the screaming he had to do while directing his players what to do. England were batting on 157/4 with Axar Patel bowling when Rohit walked up to his fielding position. “Mere gale ka watt lag gaya hai chilla chilla ke tum logo ko,” he was heard saying, which translates to “I am losing my voice having to shout at you guys so much”. Classic Rohit Sharma.
But as it turns out, Rohit’s yelling did its trick as India dismissed England for 292 to win the second Test by 106 runs and level the series. Rohit’s own form with the bat wasn’t the greatest as scores of 24, 39, 14 and 13 demonstrate but the fact that he led India to a come-from-behind win without the likes of KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli is a big statement.
Watch the video below:
Rohit Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav’s cat-and-mouse game
As expected, this wasn’t Rohit’s only piece of shenanigan on the field. On Day 3 as India began their defence of 399, he refused to take a DRS call even as Kuldeep Yadav seemed utterly sure. Rohit, clearly unimpressed with Kuldeep’s sense of judgment on a caught behind appeal of Zak Crawley – and rightly so as the wrist-spinner was fielding at square leg – the India captain even sarcastically clapped his teammate’s call after the big screen showed a clear gap between bat and ball. However, the very next day, Kuldeep struck back, this time rightly convincing Rohit of a DRS that eventually helped India and worked in their favour.
During other passages, Rohit was also seen jokingly asking umpire Marais Erasmus what he felt about an LBW dismissal and confronting Chris Gaffaney about the drama surrounding the appeal surrounding Tom Hartley.
As far as the match goes, Rohit was impressed with Team India’s overall performance but did raise a valid batting concern. For the second game in a row now India’s second-innings batting has let the team down. In Vizag, they looked set to set England a target of at least 450 before another capitulation of sorts had them content with 399. Besides, the manner in which KS Bharat and Shreyas Iyer got out makes you wonder whether they will retain their place in the squad for the remaining three Tests.
“The wicket was good to bat on, a lot of the batters got starts and didn’t convert. They are young, new to this format, it will take some time. This win gives us a lot of confidence. Very proud of such a young squad, to come up against a team like that. Very positive. We want these guys to have time in the middle,” he said after the match.
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