The wicket of India Test captain Rohit Sharma on January 23 was a major victory for Jammu and Kashmir bowler Umar Nazir. Nazir, who was participating in the Ranji Trophy, used his line and length to torment the 'out-of-touch' Rohit Sharma before taking his wicket in the game's sixth over. Nazir, though, declined to celebrate the Mumbai mainstay's wicket.
After misjudging the bounce of Nazir's length ball, Rohit Sharma top-edged it, giving Jammu and Kashmir skipper Paras Dogra an easy catch. Against Mumbai, Umar Nazir maintained his impressive start by taking four wickets in the first innings, including Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube.
Nazir on not celebrating Rohit's wicket
Nazir explained to the media why he did not celebrate Rohit Sharma's wicket at the conclusion of Day 1's play. Nazir disclosed that he wanted to show Rohit some respect because he was a huge fan of the batter.
"The first thought in my mind was... I am a big fan of Rohit and that is why I didn't celebrate after taking his wicket today. If we win this game, it would be a proud moment because India's captain is playing in the opposition," Nazir told reporters.
Nazir went on to say that he was at ease prior to the game and that it had no bearing whatsoever on him knowing he would be bowling to a player he admired.
"I slept off at 10 pm last night and woke up around 7 am and was relaxed. A good ball is a good ball against any player, you don't look at the stature of the player, but Rohit Sharma's wicket is a big one, I am happy," Nazir concluded.
When Mumbai played Jammu and Kashmir in the Ranji Trophy, they had a terrible batting performance. At the BKC Ground in Mumbai, the team was bowled out for 120 runs on Thursday, a disastrous result of the attempt to shoehorn Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal. If it were not for Shardul Thakur's valiant half-century, which saw Mumbai reach 120 runs after being reduced to 47/7 in the first 20 overs of the game, things would have gone much worse for the team.