By Karan Agrawal 
Indian captain Rohit Sharma was seen in the nets practicing with Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy Team ahead of their next match against Jammu & Kashmir, which is scheduled to begin on January 23. Rohit’s decision to join his domestic team comes after the BCCI instructed the players who are not a part of the five-match T20I series against England to play in the next round of the Ranji Trophy following a below-par performance in the recently concluded Border Gavaskar Trophy which India lost by a margin of 3-1.
The Initiative
Rohit who is one of the senior players of the team had a forgetful tour both as a batter and as a captain as he wasn’t able to score a single half-century with the bat in the six innings that he played on the tour and was visibly defensive with his tactics on the field.
The Reason
Rohit (37) has only managed to score 68 runs in his last five innings in Test Cricket and seemed like a walking wicket in the series against Australia. If the World Cup winning captain plays Mumbai’s next Ranji Trophy game it will help him to prepare well for the upcoming Champions Trophy scheduled to bew played in Pakistan and Dubai.
The Practice
If we talk about Rohit’s practice the right-hander began with center wicket practice and faced the fast bowling of Shardul Thakur, Royston Dias, and Mohit Avasthi with slip cordon in place. He punished the bad balls but resisted the temptation of going for expensive drives. He was a bit more aggressive against spin as he swept and reverse-swept the left-arm spinner and off-spinner Tanush Kotian.
The Goal
The Indian captain if he does will be featuring in a Ranji Trophy game after a long gap which will help him get much-needed match practice before the three-match ODI series against England followed by the Champions Trophy.