When both Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill watch the replay of their terrible mix-up during the first T20I against Afghanistan in Mohali that resulted in the India captan’s run out, they would realise two things. Rohit would be slightly disappointed because of his outburst at his much younger partner and Gill would agree that that was an easy run in it, if he had trusted his captain instead of watching the ball.
Rohit’s outburst was a clear case of a heat-of-the-moment reaction. He had come down the track to Fazalhaq Farooqi and slapped him straight down the ground. It had power but didn’t go as straight as Rohit would have liked to. The mid-off fielder, with a dive to his right, was able to stop the ball from going to the boundary. But Rohit realised, there was a single there. He set off. But Gill was ball-watching at the non-striker’s end. He didn’t move an inch and by the time he realised, Rohit was standing right next to him at the non-striker’s end.
Rohit was livid. He flung his arms and the stump mics even caught him hurling a word that the commentators didn’t want to repeat.
“It was a walkable run,” said former India cricketer Rohan Gavaskar on Cricbuzz.
“Let’s not forget Rohit Sharma is a kind of a person, forget captain, Who doesn’t get angry that often. He is very cool, calm and collective. Now, as a younger player when you see your captain who is normally at equilibrium, blowing a fuse like the way he did, then you are thinking ‘Man I’ve got to do something special’,” he said.
Gill played some attractive shots after Rohit’s run out but in Rohan Gavaskar’s words, he was perhaps trying too hard to make up for his captain’s loss. Despite hitting a couple of boundaries in the over, Gill tried to wallop Mujeev-ur-Rahman by dancing down the track but failed to make any contact with the ball and was out stumped for 23 off 12 balls.
Gavaskar said because the ball had gone towards the mid-off fielder it was also going to be the striker’s call; all Gill needed to do was trust Rohit, who was anyway coming to the danger end.
“The ball has gone behind the non-striker. Rohit has hit the ball, it’s his call. As a non-striker, you’ve got to trust your partner. 9 times out of 10, the throw won’t be at your end. The fielder at mid-off and mid-on will pick up the ball and have a shy at the bowler’s end. The striker is running at the danger end.
“The mistake that Shubman made was that he was watching the ball and kept looking at the fielder. He had no idea where Rohit was until he was right next to him,” he added.
The mistake, however, didn’t cost India that much as Shivam Dube played a measured knock of an unbeaten 60 off 40 balls. He got a decent supporting hand from keeper Jitesh Sharma (31 off 20) as the hosts chased down the 159-run target with six wickets and 15 balls to spare. The victory meant India took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The second T20I will take place on Sunday in Indore.
