‘Leader’ Rohit Sharma motivates Mumbai Ranji team with passionate pep talk, video goes viral

India captain Rohit Sharma recently played in the Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Jammu & Kashmir, following the BCCI's diktat that all cricketers must play domestic cricket to remain eligible for selection. While the veteran batsman failed to rediscover his Ranji Trophy form, a video of him showing leadership during the match has now gone viral.

Rohit did not captain Mumbai's Ranji side, with former India teammate Ajinkya Rahane taking the reins. However, the veteran batsman did not let a title get in the way of mentoring his teammates.

Rohit Sharma's leadership:

On the third day of the Ranji Trophy match, Mumbai were defending a total of 205 runs against a strong J&K batting line-up. In a tense situation, Rohit took command at the Bandra Kurla Complex Ground and delivered a motivational pep talk to his teammates.

However, despite Rohit's motivational speech, Mumbai were unable to salvage the match and eventually suffered a 5-wicket defeat.

Rohit's poor form continues in Ranji Trophy: 

The 37-year-old has been going through a rough patch in his career in recent months and the last two series against New Zealand and Australia have only exacerbated the situation. The Indian captain is aware of his lack of runs and even dropped himself from the Indian team in the final match of the Australia series.

Rohit would have been keen to get back to scoring runs in a relatively low-pressure Ranji Trophy before the Champions Trophy. However, the Mumbai batter could only manage scores of 3 and 28 in the two innings.

Apart from Rohit, other senior batsmen in the Mumbai XI, including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer and Shivam Dube, also failed to score runs. However, Mumbai found an unexpected saviour in Shardul Thakur, who scored 51 and 118* in the two innings. 

For Jammu & Kashmir, opener Shubham Khajuria's knocks of 53 and 45 in the two innings played a crucial role in getting past the Mumbai total.