4 Centuries, 2 50s, Captaincy & Opening: Rohit Sharma’s Life In Ranji Trophy Before J&K Failure

Rohit Sharma was a different beast back in the day. [Source: @SPORTYVISHAL/X]

For all the talk of top Indian Test cricketers returning to their roots, i.e., Ranji Trophy, the first session turned out to be quite a damp squib. Four out of India’s top five batters during the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy were dismissed for single-digit individual scores.

Captain Rohit Sharma, returning to the prestigious tournament after more than nine years, grabbed the maximum eyeballs but also disappointed the most in spite of being backed by Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane. What hurt more than Sharma’s 3 (19) was his mode of dismissal.

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For top six batters with a minimum of 15 innings in a season since 2006, Sharma’s average of 10.43 is the second-lowest in first-class cricket. With 17 wickets falling during the ongoing Mumbai vs Jammu & Kashmir contest at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy BKC, it is almost certain that Sharma will bat again tomorrow. In what could end up being his last innings of the format this season, he wouldn’t want to go below Hasib Hameed’s average of 9.44 (across 18 innings in 2018).

Rohit Sharma’s Life In Ranji Trophy Before J&K Failure

Sharma, however, wasn’t always a walking wicket in first-class cricket. As a matter of fact, he was a different beast altogether in his last 10 Ranji Trophy innings until Thursday. For someone who required more than half-a-decade to cement his spots in both India’s ODI and Test Playing XIs, Sharma was given dozens of chances primarily because of his returns in domestic cricket.

While the right-handed batter’s last Ranji innings had come against Uttar Pradesh at the Wankhede Stadium in 2015, all his previous nine appearances had come during Ranji Trophy 2012/13 – a year before his Test debut. At the time, all he had achieved for India were a couple of centuries across as many as 80 innings.

Not known for opening the batting at the time, Sharma did open in the second innings against Punjab in his team’s attempt to seal a 155-run target in what ended up being a drawn encounter. Below are Sharma’s last 10 Ranji Trophy innings (807 runs at an average of 80.7 and a strike rate of 68.73) before today:

While Sharma’s 2015 outing had come under Aditya Tare, he not only played the 2012/13 season under former India pacer and current chief selector Ajit Agarkar but also led Mumbai thrice in his absence.

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