Rohit Sharma made his Test captaincy debut on Friday at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, when he led the team against Sri Lanka on Friday, March 4. Sharma became India’s 35th Test captain after Virat Kohli had relinquished his post earlier this year.
Rohit won the toss and expectedly elected to bat first on a pitch that offered help for all batsmen, pacers, and spinners. While Suranga Lakmal troubled Mayank Agarwal with his lateral movement, Rohit Sharma was up and running with boundaries on both sides of the wicket.
Rohit then went after Sri Lanka’s fastest bowler, Lahiru Kumara, slamming four boundaries to the fast bowler, the last two with sumptuous pull shots. However, he played one pull shot too many when Kumara straightened his line into Rohit’s body; the opener didn’t find the middle of the bat this time and sent the ball straight in the hands of fine leg, ending his brisk innings of 29 runs off 28 balls, comprising six boundaries.
Later on, Sharma did something that has got the fans chuckling. During the 43rd over of India’s innings, when Kohli and Hanuma Vihari were in the middle, Rohit, in the dressing room was seen imitating the batting stance of South Africa’s Faf du Plessis!
Wide hands, high backlift, the little crouch, steely eyes – Sharma has carefully observed Faf and was doing an impeccable imitation of the former South African skipper.
You can watch the video here:
— crictalk (@crictalk7) March 4, 2022
Rohit Sharma will come up against Faf du Plessis in the upcoming IPL 2022 when Mumbai Indians take on Royal Challengers Bangalore. Faf, who was the second-highest run-scorer last season, contributing heavily to CSK’s title-winning campaign, was bought by RCB for 7 crore at the mega-auction last month. Faf du Plessis could also be appointed as RCB’s captain for this season with other options being Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik.
Meanwhile, Hanuma Vihari struck a fifty while batting at number 3 on Day1 in Mohali. Sri Lanka kept chipping in with timely wickets whenever a partnership threatened. At the time of writing, India are 252/5 at the 68-over mark.
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