Highlights of the opening day of the sixth round matches
Rohit’s big mistake on Ranji comeback!
Rohit Sharma’s Ranji Trophy comeback after almost 10 years was not as memorable as he expected. His 19-ball alertness cost him 3 runs, and he was caught at the leading edge while attempting a half-nudge, half-pull down the leg side on a rising ball from Jammu and Kashmir’s Umar Nazir. It’s reminiscent of two recent Test outings for Rohit: against Pat Cummins at the MCG, and against Matt Henry at the Wankhede Stadium.
Rohit was dismissed soon after by Yashasvi Jaiswal after Mumbai decided to bat first. Captain Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer could also score only 12 and 11 runs respectively in the first innings, which lasted 33.2 overs and Mumbai was out for 120 runs. But excellent work with the ball means Mumbai have a chance to keep their deficit under three. Figures.
Rohit’s return to the domestic set-up comes following new BCCI guidelines that have come into effect after India’s 3-1 upset in Australia earlier this month. Rohit’s Test future hangs in the balance after his withdrawal from the Sydney Test, but he has reiterated that he has not retired and is still expected to lead the team in Tests.
Gill and Punjab collapse in front of swing and seam
In Bengaluru, Shubman Gill’s performance not only with the bat but also on the field as captain was equally forgettable. Punjab, missing Abhishek Sharma, were all out for 55 and Gill after scoring just 4 runs as Chinnaswamy’s lush deck was dominated by swing and seam bowlers. At stumps, Punjab were so far behind in the game that they would probably need Gill especially to salvage a point from the match.
Gill’s return to domestic cricket gave him a chance to get some match time and confidence back after an underwhelming return in Australia, where he played only three of the five Test matches, scoring 93 runs in five innings. His comeback outside Asia has been in special focus since the 2021 World Test Championship final – he
Average in 18 innings 17.64,
Pant missed; Jadeja took five wickets on Rajkot turner
In Rajkot, Rishabh Pant lasted just 10 balls and was out to Dharmendra Singh Jadeja. Pant’s dismissal was part of Delhi’s top-order collapse against spin. Ravindra Jadeja, who was a huge threat on the turner, performed well in the conditions created for him and took five wickets in his 35th first-class match to bowl out Delhi for 188 runs.
In reply, Saurashtra were down by 25 runs at stumps but had lost five wickets, including the wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara and Jadeja, who have scored 38 runs so far. Pujara, who is not part of India’s Test plans, scored just 6 runs. Apart from the 234 runs he scored against Chhattisgarh, Pujara has had modest returns so far this season, with scores of 16, 0, 2, 3 and 14 in his other innings.
Siddharth Desai missed a perfect 10
Gujarat’s left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai took nine wickets in the very first session of the game against Uttarakhand in Ahmedabad and had a chance to become the second bowler after Haryana’s Anshul Kamboj to record a perfect 10 this season. That chance ended when Vishal Jaiswal took the last wicket.
Desai took 9 for 36, the best performance by a Gujarat player in first-class cricket, bettering the record of Jasu Patel, who took 8 for 21 against Saurashtra in 1960–61. Desai, who took nine wickets on debut against Kerala in 2017-18, has emerged as Gujarat’s front-line spinner since Piyush Chawla returned to his home state Uttar Pradesh.
Khalil took five wickets for the first time
Eight years after his first-class debut, Khaleel Ahmed has taken a five-wicket haul for the first time in first-class cricket. This included key wickets for Vidarbha, including Karun Nair, who was in great form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. His figures were an impressive 15-5-37-5.
Khaleel’s performance coincides with his exclusion from the national team, especially as the selectors are on the lookout for left-arm fast bowlers, a style of bowler that has been missing from India’s Test attack since Zaheer Khan’s exit. This is only Khaleel’s 17th first-class match – three of these have come in the current Ranji season (including this game), and two in the Duleep Trophy in August, in which he took nine wickets at an average of 21.66.
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