How did Rohit Sharma perform in his last Ranji Trophy for Mumbai in 2015?

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is set to make his comeback to Ranji Trophy cricket. The 37-year-old is set to play against Jammu and Kashmir for defending champions Mumbai. This move comes about after Rohit’s barren run with the bat in the last few months in the longest format of the game. 

2024 began well for Rohit in the Test format as he scored 455 runs in his first six games of the season. This included two centuries both coming against England at the start of the year as India won the series with a 4-1 margin. However, in the next eight Test matches, Rohit scored 164 runs with a solitary half-century. 

The right-handed batter managed to average just 6.2 during the recent tour of Australia with 31 runs. Considering India has a tough tour of England scheduled in June, the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will want to improve their red-ball form. Gautam Gambhir and BCCI have put their foot down and asked each player to take part in Ranji Trophy matches. 

Can India’s skipper regain form on return to Ranji Trophy cricket?

Rohit’s last Ranji Trophy appearance came against Uttar Pradesh during the 2015/16 at the Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai batted first and saw skipper Aditya Tare depart from 30 while Akhil Herwadkar was out to Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 58 runs. This brought Rohit Sharma to the wicket as he joined 20-year-old Shreyas Iyer in the middle. 

The pair batted aggressively to add 98 runs for the third wicket in just 100 balls. That stand was broken when Kumar got the wicket of Iyer for 137 runs. His knock came off 110 balls with 14 boundaries and five huge sixes. Rohit on the other hand didn’t let the scoring rate drop as he smashed the ball to all parts of the stadium. 

Suryakumar Yadav joined his senior teammate and the pair added 99 runs for the fourth wicket. Rohit reached a well-deserved century as the crowd that came in to watch him bat applauded the effort. The batter was out early on the second day for 113 runs when he was caught by Suresh Raina off Ankit Rajpoot. Rohit’s knock contained 13 fours and a six as Mumbai declared on 610/9. 

The match ended in a draw as UP were bowled out for 440 in their first innings. Four batters including Piyush Chawla (84) scored half-centuries. Skipper Suresh Raina was out for nine runs while left-arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar and Abhishek Nayar picked four wickets each. Being asked to follow on UP were 140/1 before the game was eventually called off.