Rohit Sharma run out for a duck on his T20I comeback in Mohali

Listen to Story India captain Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a duck on his T20I comeback against Afghanistan at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. Rohit, who made his return to T20I cricket after a gap of 14 months had a forgetful evening with the bat. Rohit was involved in a horrible mix up with fellow opener Shubman Gill, which led to his run out off the second ball of the second innings.

This was Rohit’s first T20I match since India’s loss against England in the semi final of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. In fact, this was the first time that Rohit was playing a white ball international match since India lost the 2023 ODI World Cup final against Australia in November, 2023.

India were given a 159 run target to chase by Afghanistan in Mohali, on the back of a brilliant knock from veteran all rounder Mohammad Nabi. After a steady 50 run opening stand between skipper Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube provided India with three quick wickets to pile pressure on the visitors.

However, Nabi and Azmatullah Omarzai stitched a 68 run stand to get Afghanistan back in the game. Omarzai scored 29 runs off 22 balls, smashing two boundaries and one six, before being cleaned up by pacer Mukesh Kumar in the 18 over. Nabi soon followed Omarzai back to the pavilion with Mukesh picking his second wicket of the evening.

However, the damage had already been done as Nabi smashed 42 runs off 27 balls, hitting two boundaries and three maximums. Najibullah Zadran and Karim Janat chipped in with 19 and 9 respectively to take Afghanistan to 158 or 5 in 20 overs in the first innings. India has an unblemished record against Afghanistan in the shortest format of the game, having won four of their five encounters with one ending in a no result.

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Tilak Verma, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran (c), Rahmat Shah, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen Ul Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman..