India captain Rohit Sharma will be making his comeback to the T20I side after a 14-month gap as the Men in Blue take on Afghanistan in the first game of the three-match series on Thursday, January 11 at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. Virat Kohli, who’s also been selected in the squad, won’t be featuring in the first game due to personal reasons.
In Kohli’s absence, the Indian skipper will have the onus of carrying the inexperienced batting line up as India look to finalize their preparations for the T20 World Cup 2024. However, the beginning of the comeback hasn’t gone as planned for Rohit as his chartered flight to Mohali got delayed.
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Hence, the India captain decided to straight away travel to the IS Bindra Stadium from the Chandigarh airport, according to a Dainik Jagran report, and joined the practice session instead of going to the Hotel. The 36-year-old did some stretching exercises and joined head coach Rahul Dravid for a pitch inspection. He also faced some throwdowns and had a chat with the young members of the squad.
Notably, Rohit last played T20Is in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 where India suffered a humiliating defeat by ten wickets against England. The Nagpur-born cricketer had a miserable tournament with the bat, scoring just 116 runs from six innings at an average of 19.33 and a strike rate of 106.42.
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Rohit Sharma is the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is
However, his record in T20Is speaks for itself having the second most number of runs in the format having amassed 3853 runs from 140 innings at an average of 31.32 and a strike rate of 139.24 with a joint-record four hundreds.
Hence, the Indian skipper will look to get accustomed to the fast-paced game of T20Is once again in the upcoming series ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024.