‘Rohit still on 0’: Indian skipper on his viral stump-mic chat with umpire

NEW DELHI: Rohit Sharma is hogging the limelight these days more for his stump-mic chatters than for his batting performances. The one incident left the social media in frenzy when the Indian skipper‘s chat with the umpire was caught by a stump mic during the third T20I against Afghanistan in January.
Rohit was heard telling umpire Virender Sharma that his decision of giving thigh pad boundary instead of bat extended his wait of opening an account in the series.Rohit, who was dismissed for ducks in the first two matches, guided Fareed Ahmad down the leg side on the second delivery of the match in what would have been his first runs of the series. But to his dismay the umpire signalled leg-byes leaving Rohit stranded on 0.
“Viru thigh pad diya kya pehla ball, itna bada bat laga hai bhai, already mera 2 zero ho gaya hai” (Viru, did you give the 1st ball as thigh pad, it clearly touched the bat. I already have two zeroes in the series).
In less than two months from the incident, Rohit has now disclosed that his reaction was a result of the frustration from the fact that he got dismissed for two ducks in consecutive games.
“When you’re coming off two zeros, we know how important scoring the first run is. I scored a four off the bat but the umpire probably didn’t notice it and signalled them as leg byes. I usually don’t look at the scoreboard much while batting. My mind is on batting, but when the over was completed, my eyes went up there and I saw that Rohit Sharma still on 0. I was like ‘I just scored a four. How is it still zero?’ So, I asked him ‘Viru, did you give it off the thigh pad?’,” Rohit said during an event in Bilaspur ahead of the fifth Test against England in Dharamsala starting Thursday.

Rohit also highlighted that he doesn’t do it deliberately and being a captain he keeps himself placed in a slip cordon to take the stock of DRS. Therefore he regularly communicates with fielders and these discussions inadvertently get captured on the microphone.
“See, I don’t have any favourite line as such and I don’t even do it deliberately. Now I am the captain so I stand in the slips, because the angle from there helps me get a better look at the fielders and take stock of DRS. So I keep talking to the fielders and it gets recorded,” he said.