Rohit’s miserable run with the bat continues in the Ranji Trophy as he falls for another single-digit score.
Rohit’s miserable run with the bat shows no signs of slowing down as he falls for another single-digit score in his return to domestic cricket.
Playing his first Ranji game in over 9 years, the current India test and ODI skipper was under tremendous pressure to get runs under his belt. Ahead of Mumbai’s game vs Jammu & Kashmir. Rohit wore a pretty relaxed look as he confirmed his availability for the game.
Mumbai also made a couple of changes in their playing 11 as well. In order to accommodate Rohit Sharma at the top of the order, Ayush Mhatre was dropped. The omission came as a surprise as the batter has been one of Mumbai’s top performers this season. Mhatre has 408 runs under his belt with an average of 45.33.
Rohit strode in to bat alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal and had a steely grit about himself as he took guard. He got off the mark on his first ball with a flick to deep square leg.
However, he was given a proper grit-and-grind by the J&K pacers as Umar Mir bowled successive maidens at him.
His dismissal was a stark throwback to the way he got out at the MCG. Rohit looked to play his trademark pick-up shot over midwicket but only managed to get a leading edge to the off side. In all, he scored 3 runs with his stay in the middle lasting just 19 balls.
This latest dismissal puts more pressure on Rohit at a time when his decline in red-ball cricket looks more pronounced than ever. With an abysmal batting average of 10.46 in 16 first-class innings, Rohit’s 2024-25 season is the second-lowest for any batter since 2006. That record unfortunately rests with Haseeb Hameed, who averaged 9.44 across 18 innings in 2018.
Rohit is no stranger to low phases in his long and storied career. He has always found ways to come back even stronger than before whenever the chips were down. But this particular stage will truly test his mettle. With the decline looking profound and him turning 38 in April. This phase could probably make or break his career for good.