IND vs BAN | Twitter stunned as Rohit brutally punishes himself for dropping Axar's hattrick chance

Gantavya Adukia
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In the 4,844 ODIs to date, only 51 have borne witness to hattricks -- nearly one in 100 games. Axar Patel had the opportunity to slightly improve that average against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday and executed his part to perfection, only to be betrayed by his skipper Rohit Sharma.

Bangladesh's fortunes in the ODI format dwindled further on Thursday with a horrendous beginning to their quest for the ICC Champions Trophy. A top-order collapse saw them lose five powerplay wickets but the scorecard did not fully reflect how poor the Tigers were. FFor all practical purposes, the side was six wickets down for a brief suspended moment, were it not for a dramatic twist of fate to provide thrilling narrative already in the tournament opener for India.

Axar Patel was called into duty in the ninth over of the innings and just took two balls to strike by nicking off Tanzid Hasan. The left-arm spinner made it a double whammy the very next ball by inflicting the same fate on Mushfiqur Rahim as the veteran departed for a golden duck. Suddenly, the Dubai International Stadium was buzzing as the hype for the hattrick ball built up. Rohit Sharma, like any captain worth his salt, duly maximized his bowler's potential by installing a second slip alongside him with several other fielders close by. The onus was on Jaker Ali to survive but like his predecessors, the batter was no match for Axar's beguling flight as the ball dipped in front off his stretched front foot and turned just enough upon pitching to take the outside edge. Rohit's eyes immediately popped out in anticipation but alas, it ended up being a bane as the Indian skipepr snatched at the ball in excitement, making it pop out from his fingers and onto the deck.

Rohit immediately dropped to the ground on his knees in frustration and in a wild fat of rage, slammed the grass with his open palms so much so that Harsha Bhogle in half-jest proclaimed concerns about a potential injury. Twitterati, however, could barely see the funny side.

Oh lord!

Dropped it

Big one

Surely

Charity

WOW

Angry

Missed it

Belt treatment

Sad

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