RAJKOT: Rajat Patidar is taking a long walk back. He had just tried to play Tom Hartley off the backfoot but was caught in an awkward position, with the ball taking a leading edge onto the hands of the short cover fielder. Much like everyone else watching, captain and non-striker Rohit Sharma, too, was bewildered. Everyone, including him, was waiting for the replay to find out if the ball had bounced extra or done a bit too much.

It hadn’t. From the replays, it seemed like Patidar was caught in two minds whether or not to play on the front foot and went for a half-hearted cut but stopped midway. It seemed like one of those times when the batter had a brain fade. Except, it came with a cost and disappointment. More so for Rohit than many. He had watched Yashasvi Jaiswal hang his bat outside to nick Mark Wood. Shubman Gill getting found out against the same pacer before the Patidar moment happened. As the Madhya Pradesh batter took the long walk back, the scorecard read 33/3 within the first hour after opting to bat first on a surface that had little to no demons.

Understandably, instead of the two debutants — Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel — Ravindra Jadeja, the home lad who has played all his domestic cricket at this venue, walked in at No. 5. Now, at this point, the pressure was on the two most experienced batters in the top seven to do the job. Rohit, in particular, was under the pump because he hadn’t crossed the 40-run mark in eight innings. However, he was nowhere near looking settled. In the very next over, Wood, who had been running in with intent, rushing the Indian top-order with his pace and line, delivered a mean bouncer that hit Rohit on the helmet grill. Immediately, the support staff was out there checking in on him. A few balls later, Rohit tried to take on Hartely, but the ball took an outside edge on its way to Joe Root at the slips. As luck would have it, Root dropped him. Then he survived a DRS decision against James Anderson.

That perhaps was the wake-up call Rohit needed. It seemed like an indication of luck going his way and he realised it too. He defended and defended with conviction against Hartley and took on the spinner only when there was a bad delivery. Against Anderson, too, Rohit was happy to get on the front foot and defend, while leaving a few outside the off-stump. That didn’t mean he went into a shell. He knew Jadeja was at the other end, who was comfortable at rotating strike, and all he had to do was pick the right balls to play his shots. Like when Anderson pitched one in his zone, Rohit punched him through covers. Against Hartley, a short-pitched delivery was pulled, and the loosener from Joe Root was swept to the ropes.