At the end of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy game against Himachal Pradesh last week, skipper Wasim Jaffer had stressed on the need for players like Rohit Sharma to score big and crucial knocks to have a chance of getting a national call-up.
At the end of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy game against Himachal Pradesh last week, skipper Wasim Jaffer had stressed on the need for players like Rohit Sharma to score big and crucial knocks to have a chance of getting a national call-up.
Sharma, who has been struggling so far in the season, seems to have taken the advice seriously and came up with a very important knock against Railways at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi yesterday.
Having dismissed the hosts for 187, it was essential for Mumbai to get a hefty lead on a wicket that is becoming more and more difficult to bat on.
Sharma walked into bat with Mumbai at 86 for 3 and were 161 for 7 at one stage. But he strung up a partnership with Vinayak Samant and Mumbai ended the second day on 248 for 8. Sharma is unbeaten on 94 and Mumbai will be hoping that he can continue in the same vein on the penultimate day today.
"There's always a worry when your top batsmen are not getting runs. So as skipper, it was great to see Rohit back among the runs. There is no doubt about his talent and he was batting well in the nets so we knew that he would score sooner or later," said Jaffer, who made 75.
It was not just Sharma's runs, but the way he got them that has pleased Jaffer. "The wicket is not the type that Rohit would prefer batting on. He likes the ball coming on to the bat so batting on this wicket was going to be difficult for him.
"But he applied himself really well and remained focused throughout his innings. Such efforts will be very important for him to knock on the Indian team's doors again." Jaffer said.
