Rohit Sharma last played in the Ranji Trophy in 2015 for Mumbai against Uttar Pradesh.© BCCI
Legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar is “very happy” that India captain Rohit Sharma will play Ranji Trophy for Mumbai. On Saturday, Rohit confirmed his availability for the game against Jammu and Kashmir during a press conference. This comes after the BCCI made it mandatory for the players to participate in domestic cricket. Rohit scored 31 runs in five innings in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, raising doubts over his future in the Indian team. Gavaskar feels Rohit will get much needed practice to work on the mistakes he made amid his recent slump in form.
“Yes, it’s a good thing because, look, he didn’t get runs in Australia, so he knows he needs to spend time out 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,” said Gavaskar, during a discussion on Sports Tak‘s YouTube channel.
“In the nets, you could get out caught 20 times, but you can still bat for 20 or 40 minutes. You keep getting dismissed in the nets. That practice isn’t good because there’s no pressure to bat well or protect your wicket. In a match, that pressure is real. So what can happen and what should happen is if you don’t get runs, then, you know. To the net next door because every ground now does not have nets on the ground, but next to the ground there are nets, so you fail with the bat in a match, go into the nets and have that practice, get that rhythm going, but nothing like playing in a match. I’m very happy to see that Rohit Sharma has said that he is going to play in the Trophy,” he added.
Rohit last played in the Ranji Trophy in 2015 for Mumbai against Uttar Pradesh. Mumbai will take on Jammu and Kashmir at the Wankhede on January 23.
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