Indian skipper Rohit Sharma’s return to the T20I arena was short-lived. On the second ball of the over, Rohit played a shot off Fazhalhaq Farooqi toward mid-off and wanted a single which Shubman Gill denied. Rohit made his ground whereas Gill stood inside the crease and said no but it was too late.
The throw came from Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz took off the bails. Rohit departed for a two-ball duck. While going back to the dressing room, Rohit lost his cool at Gill. It was Rohit’s call to take a single. Ideally, the non-striker is supposed to trust the partner and answer the call as the striker is running towards the danger zone.
The mix-up left head coach Rahul Dravid and batting coach Vikram Rathour stunned as well. This was Rohit's 11th duck in T20Is, the most by an Indian batter.
Rohit played a T20I after 14 months. His previous appearance was in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Melbourne against England. India lost the match by 10 wickets. Rohit managed to score 27 runs from 28 deliveries in the fixture.
Gill was not the first choice to open alongside Rohit but Yashasvi Jaiswal was unavailable for selection due to “a sore groin”. In the pre-match press conference, Dravid had made it clear that Jaiswal will open the innings with the skipper.
Before the series, Gill was not among runs in the T20I format. On India’s tour of South Africa, he registered scores of 0 and 9 in the T20I series.
In the series opener against Afghanistan, Gill contributed with 23 runs from 12 balls. He was beaten by Mujeeb ur Rahman and ended up getting stumped out.
Earlier, Rohit won the toss and opted to field first. Afghanistan's top-order batters got starts but failed to convert them into big scores. Afghanistan were struggling in the middle overs but veteran Afghan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi helped push the scoring rate with a 27-ball 42 featuring two fours and three sixes. Najibullah Zadran's unbeaten 11-ball 19 helped Afghanistan post 158/5 on the board.
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