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
Rohit Sharma apologizes after dropping a catch on Axar Patel’s hat-trick ball. The emotions say it all! 💔
📸: JioHotstar pic.twitter.com/dWXacN17OQ— Praveen kumar (@Naninaidu98) February 20, 2025
Rohit Sharma apologized to Axar Patel with folded hands after dropping a catch on the hat-trick ball.#IndvsBan pic.twitter.com/viWhXY5YYZ
— Yanika_Lit (@LogicLitLatte) February 20, 2025
Surely
Rohit’s surely getting that special mention in Axar Patel’s future biography.
— Shilpak. (@ugach_kahitarii) February 20, 2025
Charity
Axar Patel on a hat-trick and Rohit Sharma decides to do charity work by dropping the catch
— Cheeku Tripathi (@kaush_trip) February 20, 2025
Axar Patel could have become 2nd player in Champions Trophy history to take a hattrick after Jerome Taylor vs Australia in 2006 !!!
But selfless vadapav ruined it 🥱#IndvsBan #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/nIzbxLRqAk— Matrix🪬 (@itz__zen_) February 20, 2025
Angry
Missed it
Bad luck for Axar Patel Rohit dropped simple catch in slip and Axar missed his hat-trick.#iccchampionstrophy2025 pic.twitter.com/nwTxM76ynQ
— Umang Pandey (@PandeyA54962168) February 20, 2025
Axar Patel in the dressing room seeing Rohit. pic.twitter.com/460SV48T8n
— Shree (@kshreerang_) February 20, 2025
Sad
