His debut jinxed, Rohit celebrates return to Nagpur
NAGPUR: Returning to the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium must not have been easy for Rohit Sharma. It’s the venue where a freak injury cost him one of the biggest opportunities in his cricket career.
In the 2010 Test against South Africa, he was less than an hour away from his Test debut when he hurt his ankle during warm-up and was ruled out. Three years passed before he got another chance.
As fate would have had, Rohit’s Test career never took off and the second Test against Sri Lanka is only his 22nd game in whites.
Playing his first Test since October, 2016, he will take some solace from his unbeaten hundred on Sunday.
“Personally for me, it was very important as I was playing Test cricket after nearly 500 days. I have been waiting for this opportunity and I am glad that I could put some runs on the board for myself and team.
“I clearly remember this was the ground where I got injured and I had to wait three years to make my Test debut. This ground has now given me something now to go back. Very happy and pleased with the way we played.”
Rohit did play a Test
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I clearly remember this was the ground where I got injured...This ground has now given me something now to go back ROHIT SHARMA, On Nagpur Test
here earlier, the 2015 against South Africa, but the returns were poor – 2 and 23 runs. On Sunday, he more than made amends with a free flowing 102 not out, adding 173 runs with skipper Virat Kohli.
Rohit may have been left to rue as to what might have been, as he saw the likes of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara bypassing him and establish their places in the squad while he still remains on the fringes, but the player refused to have any regrets about the incident.
“There will always be regrets in your life. Even if you score 10,000 runs, you will feel, “oh, I should have scored 15,000 runs”. Or people will tell you, “you should have scored 15,000 runs, man”. So that’s what it is. That’s what this world is and that’s what we’re living in. But for me I’m glad I’m back on my feet, scoring some runs. I’m not someone who will think what has happened in the past. I like to see what is in front of
me.”