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Guiding on Shubman Gill’s gritty 101* runs and Mohammed Shami’s five-wicket-haul, Rohit Sharma-led Team India registered a comprehensive six-wicket win against Bangladesh in their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 opener at the Dubai international Cricket Stadium in Dubai. After being put to field first, the Indian bowlers picked a few crucial wickets, leaving Bangladesh reeling at 35/5 inside the first powerplay.
While Mohammed Shami and Harshit Rana picked a wicket each in their respective opening overs, all-rounder Axar Patel also scalped two-in-two. While he went for a hat-trick ball, skipper Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter, denying the Indian all-rounder of his hat-trick. Although, the 37-year-old was quick to apologise for the miss, in the post-match presentation, Rohit Sharma also offered Axar Patel for a treat.
Rohit Sharma plans to take Axar Patel out for ‘dinner' after drop catch on hat-trick
The Indian skipper who came out to speak after India’s six-wicket win was questioned about the dropped catch. When asked, he quickly said that he would try and take Axar Patel for a dinner to make it up for his mistake. "I may take him for a dinner tomorrow. That was an easy catch, I should have taken that catch, the standards I have set standing in the slips but these things happen," Rohit said.
It is to be noted that in the ninth over of the Bangladesh inning, Axar wreaked havoc in the opposition camp with the wickets of Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Mushfiqur Rahim off consecutive balls. On the hat-trick ball, Axar hit the right channel and Jaker Ali Anik hit one straight to Rohit, who was in the slip cordon. But Rohit dropped a simple chance as Axar missed out on the chance of taking the hat-trick.
