Apart from his batting, India captain Rohit Sharma is also known for making comments that leave fans in splits from time to time. While he usually doesn’t intend to make humorous comments, his nonchalant delivery rarely fails to make fans smile.
Something similar happened when India played Afghanistan in the third T20I in January. Rohit Sharma was having a poor outing in the series and was dismissed for ducks in the first two games of the three-match series. For those who don’t know, it was their first T20I series since the 2022 T20 World Cup.
While fans expected the captain to hit the ground running in the shortest format of the game, he couldn’t even open his account in the first two games. As expected, he was desperate to get off the mark in the third T20I. The Indian captain was involved in a funny argument with the on-field umpire when the latter waved off after the right-handed batsman hit the ball for a four in the first over.
Rohit Sharma explains the funny argument with the referee:
Although Rohit was confident he had hit the ball, the umpire believed there was no contact and signaled goodbye with his legs. The veteran batsman did not notice the umpire’s signal at the time and only realized it when he looked at the scoreboard after the end of the over.
“Arre viru, goodbye leg, diya, the second ball? Itna bada bat laga (Viru, did you say that as a farewell? There was a good portion of bat in that),” Rohit Sharma told the umpire.
On Tuesday (March 5), he spoke about the incident during the inauguration of the third edition of the Khel Mahakhumbh in Bilaspur district. He and India head coach Rahul Dravid attended the event. When asked about the plot, Rohit Sharma said:
“When you’ve recorded two ducks, it’s important to make that first run. The ball hit the bat and went to the boundary, but the umpire probably didn’t see it and instead gave him a break. Normally I don’t look at the scoreboard when I’m batting, I concentrate more on batting,” Rohit Sharma said.
“When the over was over, I looked at the scoreboard and it showed Rohit Sharma still on zero. I thought, ‘But I reached a limit, why does he keep showing zero?’” he added.
Rohit Sharma talks about his viral microphone conversation during an event in Bilaspur 😭 pic.twitter.com/HkdyGJYcZ6
—Immy|| 🇮🇳 (@TotallyImro45) March 5, 2024