Team India skipper Rohit Sharma returned to the T20I circuit for the first time since the 2022 T20 World Cup as the men in blue took on Afghanistan in Mohali on Thursday, 11 January.
The 36-year-old opened the innings with Shubman Gill, but after a terrible mix-up with the latter, he was out for a duck in the second ball of the innings.
When Rohit played the ball on mid-off in the second delivery of India's innings, he sprinted immediately to collect a single. Gill, on the other hand, had his sights fixed on the ball and made no move to take the run. Due to miscommunication, Rohit was dismissed, and the Indian captain angrily stormed off the field while yelling at Gill.
“These things happen (on the run-out). When it happens you feel frustrated, you want to be out there and score runs for the team. Everything will not go your way. We won the game, that's more important. I wanted Gill to carry on, unfortunately, got out after playing a very good little innings,” said Rohit as he spoke about his run-out during the post-match presentation.
Talking about the match, India registered a comfortable six-wicket win over the Afghans with 15 balls to spare courtesy of all-rounder Shivam Dube's dazzling knock of 60* off 40 balls.
Jitesh Sharma, known for his explosive finishes in the IPL contributed impressive 31 off 20 balls. Axar Patel, stepping into the absence of Ravindra Jadeja, played a pivotal role with his darting deliveries, finishing with figures of 4-0-23-2.
“Lot of positives. Shivam Dube, the way Jitesh batted, Tilak as well and then Rinku is in good form as well. We want to keep trying different things - try and bowl our bowlers in different situations of the game, like you saw today, Washi bowled the 19th over. We want to challenge ourselves in the areas we are slightly uncomfortable with and the bowlers are not used to that. We want to try and do that. Keeping all of those things in mind, we'll try and do whatever is possible but not at the cost of the game,” the Indian skipper added as he lauded the youngsters.
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