In the first innings, Indian captain Rohit Sharma was struck unexpectedly while fielding in the slips, which prevented him from continuing the game’s fielding. The opener also mostly avoided the batting phase before joining in when team India was in danger of losing. The 35-year-old entered the batting order at number nine despite having numerous stitches in his hand, giving India the ideal starting point for a comeback.
His 51* from 28 balls, though, was in vain as India ultimately fell short by five runs. However, many former cricketers, including former India international Sunil Gavaskar, greatly praised his brave effort. However, the 73-year-old thinks Sharma ought to have moved up in the order if his ultimate goal was to bat. Everybody knows about the quality and the class of the man. Since India came so close, the question is why didn’t he come to bat earlier? If he was going to bat at no. 9, he should have batted at no. 7. What that could’ve done is I think, Axar Patel could have played a bit differently.
“When Axar saw it was going to be Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar, he probably was thinking that maybe Rohit Sharma is not going to bat. And thus, he went for that shot. When they were at that stage, no need to play that shot,” Gavaskar said after the second ODI. “If Rohit had come at the other end, Axar could’ve batted the way he was batting, and who knows the results could’ve been different,” he added.
