India captain Rohit Sharma is all set to play a Ranji Trophy match after a long gap of nine years. The decision to play domestic cricket has been long considered given Rohit’s poor recent form in Test cricket.
The 37-year-old has been disappointing with the bat in the last few Test matches. As a result, he will look to regain his red-ball form in domestic cricket. His decision came after the BCCI came up with a set of rules that made domestic cricket mandatory for selection.
Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2025: India squad for CT and ODI in England announced, Mohammed Siraj dropped
Rohit Sharma will play Ranji Trophy for Mumbai
In a press conference, Indian captain Rohit Sharma confirmed that he has decided to lead his team from the first and will play for Mumbai against Jammu & Kashmir. The match will be played from January 23 in Mumbai.
Rohit confirms that he will play the home game. Mumbai vs J&K. Early trophy
— Vijay Tagore (@vijaymirror) January 18, 2025
Recently, the BCCI came up with a set of rules that will require the centrally contracted players to play domestic cricket whenever they are available. Rohit has put his hand up and will be available for Mumbai’s next Ranji Trophy match.
Rohit has decided to follow the rules set by the BCCI for Indian players. Earlier, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Yashasvi Jaiswal confirmed their participation for their home teams in the Ranji Trophy.
Rohit Sharma’s last Ranji Trophy game
Rohit Sharma will play a Ranji Trophy match after nine years. His last Ranji match came in November 2015 when he played against Uttar Pradesh.
He was not a regular part of the Indian Test team at that time. He scored a magnificent hundred in the game and finished on 113 off 140 balls. Rohit hit 13 fours and 1 six in the game. The match ended in a draw and Mumbai took the points on the basis of their first innings lead.
Rohit has a great first-class record and has scored 9287 runs in 128 matches at an average of 49.39. He scored 29 hundreds and 38 fifties in first-class cricket.
Rohit Sharma’s recent form
Rohit Sharma recently had a disappointing Test series in Australia where he scored 31 runs in three Tests at an average of 6.20. The Indian captain looked under-confident in every shot and proved to lack a quality Australian bowling attack.
He entered the series on the back of poor form in India’s domestic Test season. He scored 133 runs in five Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand at an average of 13.30.
Despite his recent poor form, Rohit will lead India in the upcoming Champions Trophy. It will be an important tournament for him and could determine his future in international cricket. Under his leadership, India won the 2024 T20 World Cup where he also became India’s top run-getter.
