Rohit Sharma self-destructs again, frustrations for Pant and Jaiswal

If the first day of action in the current round of the Ranji Trophy was asmal for India’s beleaguered Test batsmen asked to resurrect their red-ball form, the second day was one of frustration. Both Mumbai batsmen, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal, squandered their starts and broke down in late 20s. Shubman Gill watched the blossoming Ravichandran Smaran of Karnataka compose a strokeful double hundred, while Rishabh Pant had a busy first session behind the stumps, before he witnessed a shocking implosion of his team. Their terminator was the familiar figure of Ravindra Jadeja.
Rohit Sharma c Abid Mushtaq b Yudhvir Singh 28 (35)
A baffling nervous energy seizes Rohit Sharma when he sees the red ball. The maturity and wisdom of 2021 has vanished, replaced instead a flippancy that had impeded his nascent years in international cricket. The judgement outside the off-stump has long bidden farewell, the patience to grind out bowlers has withered. Instead, he is in a teeming hurry to knock the daylights out of the bowlers. He tries to be ultra-aggressive, when he has no business to embrace a dare-devilish approach, manufactures strokes, and in the end perishes in silly manners.
A fit of rage would seize him if he watches the dismissal on the second day again. Yudhvir Singh’s delivery landed way outside the off-stump. He could have left it alone, he could have cut or slapped it. Instead, of all the strokes at his beck and call, he slogged a hard-length ball that shaped inwardly a trifle. Worse, he was too early into the stroke and just managed to drag the ball towards a squarish midwicket. He gazed skywards and muttered an anguished soliloquy. Just a few balls ago he had missed another slog.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma walk out to bat for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy game against Jammu and Kashmir. (Express Photo Amit Chakravarty)
It is a familiar sight these days—Rohit self-destructing, as though he was rehearsing for a limited-over series. It could be that he has an eye on the Champions Trophy, it could be that the success of his hyper-aggressive methods in the 2023 World Cup has made him delusional, or more plausibly, he has lost his faith in his defensive strokes. Somewhere in his mind, he doubts his judgement and reflexes, resulting in a manic dash to unsettle the bowlers before they begin to harass him. Hence perhaps, the compulsion to force boundaries at the start of his innings. The tactic is failing gloriously.
Yashasvi Jaiswal c Yawer Hassan b Yudhvir Singh 26 (51)
Like the first outing, he was controlled for much of his knock, before he played the wrong shot against the wrong bowler on the wrong track. At the wrong time, too, as Mumbai began to lose wickets in a heap. The surface had bounce, but was not lightning quick. Short balls tend to stop on batsmen. Yudhvir is not express quick to hurry a batsman through his strokes. When he goes short, he extracts loopy, tennis ball-like bounce. In these circumstances, upper-cutting is fraught with risk, and more often than not, the batsman fails to find timing, and elevation. So when Jaiswal tried to upper-cut Yudhvir, he couldn’t get the required height or impetus on the ball for it to fly over the slip cordon. Instead, it fluttered to Hassan at second slip, who took a head-high catch. Yet again, the Australia hangover seems to linger in Yashasvi, India’s best batsman Down Under.
READ MORE: Ranji Trophy: Mumbai’s lower order saves Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal the blushes versus J&K
Like Rohit, he too sought aggressive routes. He stepped out to seamers a few times. But unlike Rohit, he was not recklessly taking them on, or to gloss over his flaws. His sashays were more purposeful as well as successful. Even the stroke that undid him stemmed from miscalculation rather than a genuine crack in his game.
Rishabh Pant c Sheldon Jackson b Ravindra Jadeja 17 (26)
His day unravelled rapidly. Delhi’s bowlers put on a commendable shift to restrict Saurashtra to 271, with Pant grabbing three catches. However, he would not have envisaged the catastrophe that would soon hit the team. In a shocking display, Delhi were bundled out for 94. Only Ayush Badoni offered some resance with 44. Pant too fought, but departed on 17, as another scalp of his national teammate Ravindra Jadeja. He thundered him for a four through square leg, before he held out to Sheldon Jackson.
Ravindra Jadeja 12.2-1-38-7
The third-fourth innings hangman resurfaced in Rajkot. He had an indifferent series in Australia; he was not at his canniest against New Zealand at home either, the Wankhede turner apart. But in his Rajkot reunion, he demonstrated that he has the craft, commitment and drive to continue as India’s numero uno spinner in Test cricket, post R Ashwin’s adieu. Match figures of 12/104 suggested that there is time yet for India’s selectors to scout for his successor. As he often does when the conditions ally, he made a quick kill, bundling Delhi in an unbroken spell after taking the new ball.
Shubman Gill not out 7 (36)
Facing a 425-run first-innings arrear and seeing two of his colleagues depart in an uneasy hour before stumps, Gill was forced to eschew his strokes and dig his heels in. Karnataka’s seamers tempted him with full balls, which he resed to remain unbeaten. A sole four in 36 balls captures the story.