‘I should have…’: Rohit Sharma’s sincere apology to Axar Patel after a missed hat-trick

Rohit's apology to Axar for him missing a hat-trick

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma praised his fellow Shubman Gill and seasoned pacer Mohammed Shami for coming in with game-changing performances against Bangladesh in the Champions Trophy series opener in Dubai. Gill scored an unbeaten century, whereas Shami came with a five-wicket haul as India won by six wickets.

After the match, Rohit spoke about how the team has been in that position many times and hence the players are experienced enough to handle the pressure, along with working with composure when needed. He praised Shubman Gill for the way he batted.

“Gill, we know the class that he has, he’s been batting brilliantly of late and today what he showed us with the bat shouldn’t surprise anyone. What was good to see that he was there till the end to make sure that he sees off the game,” he said.

Rohit then followed by heaping praise on Mohammed Shami for the five-wicket haul, that helped the pacer complete his 200 ODI wickets.

“Yeah, very happy for him. (It has been a) long time waiting, we obviously know what he brings to us,” Rohit said.

“The quality that he has, the kind of match winner he is developing himself into for us, every time we throw the ball at him he’s got something up his sleeves, which is always nice and we need guys like these to stand up in big moments,” he added.

The 37-year-old captain stated that he was not pleased with the way he dropped the catch of Jaker Ali, which caused Axar Patel to miss out on historic hat-trick.

“It was an easy catch. I should have taken that catch, the standard that I have set for myself, standing in the first slip, that was a little disappointing, but these things happen,” Rohit added.

“But again, the way these guys bowled that set the game for us to be honest, I know they were 36 for five and then they got a big partnership. These things are bound to happen, there will be partnerships, credit to (Towhid) Hridoy and Jaker Ali, they played brilliantly to stitch that big partnership,” he said.

Coming to the match, when India was bowling, the starting phase of clash was towards their side as Bangladesh was 5 down on 35. Towhid Hridoy then came in and helped the team post over 200 runs on the board.

During batting, the starting was very explosive, with the middle overs slowing down. Shubman Gill then was the player who turned the match by his unbeaten century, which helped India register a 6-wicket victory in the match.