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Why Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli walked off field during India vs Pakistan Champions Trophy clash in Dubai?
With a high temperature and humidity in Dubai during the afternoon, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both took small spells off the field during India's bowling.
India and Pakistan settled into a long battle of contrition at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, with the Pakistan middle order taking their time in a must-win match for them in the ICC Champions Trophy. On a hot day in the UAE, India’s senior players also took brief opportunities to head to the shade and get off their feet, trying to preserve their energy.
This included India’s captain Rohit Sharma, who walked off the field in the 15th over of the match briefly. Fans had earlier noticed him stretching and feeling out his legs, which led some to wonder if Rohit was carrying some injury.
Fortunately, however, Rohit was soon back on the field and prepared to carry on his captaincy responsibilities in the field.
In Rohit’s brief absence in the afternoon, Shubman Gill acted as stand-in captain for the Indian team, marking a first time that he was given this role after being handed vice-captaincy responsibilities ahead of the Champions Trophy.
The heat in Dubai is one of the reasons that have been cited as a reason for Rohit’s decision, with the temperature hitting 32 degrees celsius in the desert, while humidity of 41% also is present to make matters worse for the athletes.
Kohli also takes moment off-field
Besides Rohit, several other players of the Indian team opted to depart from the field, for a variety of reasons. Mohammed Shami looked in slight discomfort at the beginning of his spell, going off-field after only three overs to receive some treatment. However, the pacer returned later in the innings to continue bowling, and looked in better rhythm.
Pacer Harshit Rana also left the field after an initial burst, taking a brief break, while Virat Kohli also took an opportunity to head off the field, and was spotted by the television cameras near the Indian bench taking a refreshment via a chocolate bar.
India had a good start against Pakistan with early wickets of Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq the two openers, before skipper Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel rebuilt with a century partnership. However, India made the scoring rate pressure count by snapping up three quick wickets to break the partnership and leave Pakistan at 165-5 with just over 13 overs of the innings left.
