The Indian skipper Rohit Sharma had a below-average outing with the bat in India’s opening game of the Asia Cup 2023 against Pakistan at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy. Pakistan’s pacer Shaheen Afridi outclassed Rohit after he scored 11 with a brilliant in-swinger that rattled the star opening batter's stumps.
After dismissing Rohit, Shaheen also scalped the wicket of Virat Kohli, with the former Indian captain playing a knock of just four runs. Shreyas Iyer also departed after making a 9-ball 14 by Haris Rauf.
However, Indian openers batted well during the initial overs of the game before a rain break stopped the game after 4.3 overs. Just after the break, Shaheen came and took the wicket of Rohit.
In between the rain break, something strange happened as skipper Rohit was spotted fuming at the cameraman while sitting in the team dugout.
Rohit was angry after seeing the camera repeatedly following him. Talking about the game, despite losing four wickets early in the innings, young batter Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya revived the Indian innings by adding 138 runs for the fifth wicket. Ishan scored 82 runs off 81 balls before walking back to the pavilion while Hardik Pandya is still batting in the middle alongside Ravindra Jadeja.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Pakistan (Playing XI): Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.