England’s wicket-keeper bat Jos Buttler has revealed how he asked for Rohit Sharma’s jersey after the ODI series against India. It was reported during the ODI series that the Lord’s game could be the last for Rohit and Buttler was not sure if he was ever going to play against the veteran batter.
Buttler said Rohit was probably on an important call when he met him in the long room after England’s 27-run victory and made a request to get his jersey. Ahead of the series, Buttler had given his jersey to Rohit.
Jos Buttler said on For the Love of Cricket YouTube Channel, “He was the one player at the moment whose shirt I don’t have and wanted. He absolutely made me nervous as it was Rohit Sharma, an absolute legend. You don’t want to come across as disrespectful, which I probably did, because he was probably on an important call.”
“India’s team manager had actually asked for my shirt at the start of the series for him. So I went across to the Indian dressing room to give him my shirt. I was thinking if Rohit was around, I would get his because I wasn’t sure I’ll play against him again. He wasn’t there and I was hanging around and trying to chat with someone else, just to see if he would come.”
Buttler revealed how he finally found Rohit Sharma and asked him for his jersey.
“Then I found out he wasn’t there and was on the field doing an interview. I then walked down the stairs to our dressing room through the long room in the hope that he would be coming back up. And as I came around in the long room, Rohit was there but he was on the phone. But I still asked him if I could get his shirt by any chance. He immediately said sorry and put the phone down and agreed to my request. He then went up and did it with a nice message.”
Buttler said Liam Dawson told him that he would ask Jasprit Bumrah for his shrrt and it made the wicket-keeper think that it was his last chance to get Rohit’s jersey.
“I am not a massive shirt swapper, but there are a few I’ve wanted over the years. I actually asked Rohit a few years ago for his shirt at the toss and he said we could do it at the end of the game. But I never did. Liam Dawaon was actually chatting with Bumrah and I asked him if he was going to get Bumrah’s shirt. He said, Of course, I am. It’s Jasprit Bumrah.’ That made me think that this was probably my one chance to ask Rohit again,” said Buttler (via the aforementioned source).
Rohit scored a stunning knock of 138 runs off just 110 balls at Lord’s.
