NEWS
Follow UsIndian captain Rohit Sharma, on December 30 (Monday), faced the most number of deliveries he has faced in an innings in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy but could still not get into the double digits.
The right-handed opener faced 40 deliveries for his nine runs before getting out to Pat Cummins in the first session of day five of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Rohit showed tremendous patience in the first 16 overs before going for the majestic flick and edging it to Mitchell Marsh at gully.
This was the eighth time Cummins dismissed Rohit in Test cricket, the most by any fast bowler. In this series alone, Cummins has dismissed Rohit four times in the space of 44 deliveries.
No other captain has now dismissed an opposition skipper more than Cummins has gotten rid of Rohit. In the battle between two skippers, Cummins has got Rohit’s wicket six times in red-ball cricket.
The series has now gone from bad to worse for Rohit, who has only managed 31 runs across five innings at an average of 6.20. This is the second-worst average for a top-six batter in a Test series against Australia in Australia.
That’s not it. This is also the fourth-lowest average for an Indian batter in an away series (minimum 100 balls faced) after Ishant Sharma (average of 4 in England in 2011), Anil Kumble (4.83 in Sri Lanka in 2008), and Ishant again (5.25 in England in 2018).
After dismissing Rohit in the 17th over, Cummins also sent back in-form KL Rahul for a duck in the same over. The win strikes have put Inda on the back foot in pursuit of 340.
