Though India’s captain Rohit Sharma has entered the twilight stage of his playing career, his agility doesn’t show signs of slowing down any time soon.
The 36-year-old once again showcased an exhibition of his lightning-fast reflexes on Monday when he plucked a catch out of thin air in just 0.45 seconds to dismiss Ollie Pope in the ongoing Vizag Test.
The incident unfolded on the second delivery of the 28th over. Operating from around the wicket, Ashwin angled the ball away from Pope. The English batter tried to play a cut shot off the backfoot but ended up slicing it too fine than what he wanted.
The ball kissed the outside edge of his willow’s upper half and travelled swiftly towards the left of Rohit. The India captain suddenly lunged at his weaker side and caught it with both hands to leave Pope dazed.
What made Rohit’s catch more special was the fact that the ball travelled to him in just 0.45 seconds so he literally had no time to react. Despite that, Rohit kept a calm head and let his reflexes take over. Pope’s wicket brought immense joy and self-belief in the Indian camp as he was threatening to take the game away from the hosts.
India’s playing XI:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar, Srikar Bharat (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar
Bench:
Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Sarfaraz Khan, Avesh Khan, Saurabh Kumar, Dhruv Jurel