Rohit Sharma’s return to T20I cricket, expected to begin with a bang, ended up being a whimper as the India skipper was out for a duck. More unfortunate was his mode of dismissal, run out after being stranded at the same end as his partner Shubman Gill – at the non-striker’s. Rohit set off to do Rohit things, but was stopped in his tracks. He smashed the second ball of the Indian innings from Fazalhaq Farooqi straight to mid-off, and took off immediately on connecting. But Gill, instead of following his captain’s call or even looking at him, kept ball watching. The run-out led to a very rare outburst as Rohit was absolutely livid with the outcome and minced not a few, but a lot of words to Gill while making his way back to the change room.
Rohit has previously been spotted being very animated and even expressed displeasure at his teammates. But this was something else. This was a man playing his first T20I for India in over 14 months and given the form he was in until November 19, Rohit would have backed himself to give India the kind of starts he did during the ODI World Cup two months ago. Rohit left, Gill was tight-lipped and things went on. But Rohit’s reaction lingered on. So much so that long after the run out was done and dusted, on commentary, Simon Doull brought it back up when another mix-up between Jitesh Sharma and Shivam Dube led to a near-run out.
Also Read: Shivam Dube shines as Rohit Sharma’s India cruise to victory in opening T20I vs Afghanistan at Mohali
“Shivam Dube was actually listening, I don’t mind that. Batting in partnerships is all about trust. And you trust someone until they misuse that trust. Shubman Gill trusts Rohit Sharma first and foremost, and doesn’t turn around to look where the ball has gone. He (Rohit) makes it home comfortably. And that’s the problem here. Rohit has called yes. Way before that, and he (Gill) should have gone. And he’s telling him now. Can’t repeat what he said because it’s not very nice. But Rohit Sharma is absolutely spot on and in the right,” Doull, the former New Zealand quick, said.
To which, L Sivaramakrishnan weighed in, stressing on the importance of knowing one’s strength and weaknesses when it comes to running between the wicket. A classic example of this were Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. Both ran like livewires, but it was possible only because both Dhoni and Kohli were aware of each other’s skills. When we talk about some of Kohli’s greatest innings of all time, one of the top knocks that come to mind was his 82 not out against Australia eight years ago at this very venue. Kohli even posted a throwback post about that game in Mohali – the quarterfinal of the 2016 World T20. “This man. He made me run like a fitness test,” he wrote.
On similar lines, Siva pointed out: “There are two things in running between the wickets. One is trust and second is your ability to gauging the pace at which your partner can run. It’s not about you being fit enough; it’s also about what your partner wants and how good he is.”
Doull’s take gets Dasgupta’s vote
After India’s six-wicket win over Afghanistan which gave them a 1-0 lead, Rohit chipped in on his run-out, burying the topic by giving it the usual ‘these things happen’ label. But in that remark, you could sense there was a little more, when he said he wanted Gill to carry on but he couldn’t. The young India opener, who received a lucky break by getting into the Playing XI because Yashasvi Jaiswal – the youngster coach Rahul Dravid had backed to open alongside Rohit – didn’t pull up fit in time, could score just 23, once again throwing away a good start. Deep Dasgupta agreed with Doull on the aspect of ‘trust’ and emphasised that it takes years to build trust, yet only a moment to lose it all.
“If the ball has gone behind you, you’ve got to trust your partner. You can’t be looking at the ball. That’s the starting point. That’s where you start, and then you obviously build that trust over the years. Playing with each other, you build that trust. And then you lose it very quickly too when you get run out a few times. In the history of the game, there’ve been quite a few runners you don’t want to trust,” said the former India keeper.
