The much-awaited return of India’s Test stars for the penultimate round clashes of the Ranji Trophy turned out a gloomy outing for many, barring Ravindra Jadeja, who was in fiery form for Saurashtra, claiming a five-wicket haul against Delhi that boasted Rishabh Pant in their ranks.

The star all-rounder accounted for the dismissals of opener Sanat Sangwan (12), Yash Dhull (44), skipper Ayush Badoni (60), Harsh Tyagi (3) and Navdeep Saini (0). The match also marked the world’s No.1 Test all-rounder’s 35th career First-Class five-wicket haul, and his overall tally of wickets for Saurashtra now stands at 201. He is only the fourth Saurashtra bowler to claim 200 wickets or more.

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Elsewhere, Rohit Sharma’s prolonged batting slump continued in red-ball cricket, as the India Test and ODI skipper fell for a single digit score on his return to Mumbai colours, while the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Pant, Shubman Gill also flopped miserably.

Opening the batting for Mumbai, Rohit was dismissed for 3 off 19 balls while Jaiswal managed just 5 off 8 balls. Captaining Punjab, Gill was sent back for 4 off 8 balls in their round six encounter against Karnataka while Delhi’s Pant managed a single off 10 balls for a forgettable comeback.

Playing his first Ranji Trophy match in nearly a decade, Rohit never looked in his elements against Jammu & Kashmir at the BKC ground in Mumbai. The J&K pace duo of Auqib Nabi and Umar Nazir Mir took full advantage of the struggles of the India opener after Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane opted to bat first on Thursday morning.

Rohit managed to get off the mark in the first over with a single off Nabi’s bowling, but got stuck at one end, failing to get on top of Mir, who constantly troubled the India captain with his impeccable line and length. In between, a delivery from Mir bounced awkwardly from the good length to hit Rohit in the arm.

The India skipper also failed in his attempt to skip down the track and upset the senior pacer’s rhythm, and eventually Mir got his reward on his 17th ball with a length delivery on the fifth stump. Rohit looked to play his trademark pick-up shot over midwicket but only managed to get a leading edge to the off side. Paras Dogra ran a few yards to his left from mid-off to extra cover, called loud and clear, and pouched it to end Rohit’s stay in the middle.

The short stay in the middle meant that Rohit’s lean run in red-ball cricket continued. Across five home Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand at home last year, he had just one half-century to show – against New Zealand in Bengaluru – with four single-digit scores across ten innings. He also had just one double-digit score in five innings in Australia, where he played in three of the five Test matches. He finished the 2024-25 Test season with a batting average of 10.93.

Before Rohit, his opening partner Jaiswal, who was one of India’s most successful batters at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, perished for 4 after being beaten on the inside edge and hit on the back leg right in front of middle and leg off a length delivery from Nabi.

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill, who was one of the first Test stars to confirm his availability for this round of the Ranji Trophy, was entrusted to open the batting on return to his state team.

Gill, who has been batting at number three for the Indian Test team, partnered with Prabhsimran Singh to open the innings for Punjab in their ongoing clash against Karnataka at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. But his innings were short lived after edging one to the keeper to be out for just four runs off eight deliveries.

At the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot, Delhi’s comeback star Rishabh Pant had contrasting fortunes against his India teammate and Saurashtra star Ravindra Jadeja, as the wicketkeeper-batter was dismissed for one off 10 deliveries.