Ranji Trophy: Reality check for stars as Rohit Sharma cops most flak

After all the hype over the return of a clutch of Indian stars to the Ranji Trophy this morning following the recent BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) diktat, comes the reality check. While Rohit Sharma’s failure against Jammu & Kashmir was a continuity to his batting woes, his famous Mumbai teammates — Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer — also failed, so did Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant for their respective state teams.

There was certainly a lot of anticipation in the air as India’s Test and ODI captain was returning to the premier domestic red ball competition after 10 years, and the last week or so had witnessed Rohit spending time at the nets as well as trying to shed some kilos with physical rigour. He stuck around for 19 deliveries to reach three when he was forced to hurry into a pull shot against a sharp Umar Nazir Mir, was undone by the extra bounce, and his leading edge flew to Paras Dogra at mid off.

A little earlier, Jaiswal — Rohit's opening partner and one of the few batters in form in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series — fell LBW to Aquib Nabi for 4, while Shreyas Iyer fell for 11 and the reigning champions were all out for 120. In Bengaluru, Gill was dismissed for 4 as Punjab’s first innings folded up for 55 all out against Karnataka, while in Delhi, Pant fell for 1 against Sausrashtra.

It was no surprise that social media went into overdrive again, with most joining the chorus for the ‘Hitman’ to retire from red-ball cricket altogether. ‘’Rohit bhai Ranji se bhi opt out kar lo, (Rohit bhai, pull out of the Ranji as well) wrote Shivam Jaiswal on his X handle (@7jaiswalshivam). Mumbai play their next fixture against Vidarbha from 30 January, and it remains to be seen if Rohit makes himself available for that one ahead of the ODI series against England.   

Throughout 2024, Rohit scored a mere 1,154 runs across all formats in 28 matches at an average of 31.18 and a strike rate of 86.83. While he finished the past year with 600-plus runs in Tests, he scored 157 runs in three ODIs and 378 in 11 T20Is before retiring from the format last year.

Gill had come out to open and was dismissed for 4 by Abhilash Shetty, a blow from which Punjab would never recover. Pant, meanwhile, fell for 1 off 10 balls against Saurashtra.

Kohli, Rahul in next match?

Incidentally, Virat Kohli and K.L. Rahul were also supposed to have been a part of the Ranji fixtures, but both opted out at the eleventh hour with injuries. Kohli, who last played a Ranji game in 2012, is expected to play Delhi’s last elite league game against Railways from 30 January, and all eyes will be riveted on how he copes with the red ball’s movement.

Commenting on Rohit’s decision to play Ranji, Sunil Gavaskar — a staunch advocate of playing domestic cricket — said, ‘’It’s a good thing because, look, he didn’t get runs in Australia so he knows he needs to spend time in the middle. How much net practice you have or however many throwdowns you face, batting in a game, feeling the ball in the middle of the bat, knowing that a mistake will send you back to the pavilion, and then still scoring runs is a big, big difference.’’

Cricket is a batter’s game alright, but it also takes one mistake to be back in the hut, as the India stars discovered to their dismay this morning.