India captain Rohit Sharma narrowly avoided a severe injury during the IND vs NZ ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 match at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium in Dharamshala on Sunday (October 22). The incident occurred in the 10th over of the New Zealand batting innings when Rohit attempted to stop the ball at mid-off but appearted to have had his fingers caught between his body and the ground.

Rohit, clearly frustrated, looked at the outfield and later left the field for treatment. In his absence, wicketkeeper KL Rahul assumed leadership duties. Rohit returned to the field two overs later. Notably, the condition of the Dharamshala outfield has come under scrutiny following an injury to Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb ul Haq. Earlier, England captain Jos Buttler had also criticized the outfield at the HPCA stadium, calling it “poor”.

Dharamsala’s poor outfield saw Mujeeb Ur Rahman getting injured

Meanwhil, Afghanistan’s head coach, Jonathan Trott, expressed his concerns about the outfield and mentioned that Mujeeb was fortunate to avoid a significant injury. He stated, “We see in cricket players being encouraged to improve their fielding but if they are afraid to dive, I mean we’re lucky Mujeeb (Ur Rahman) didn’t have a serious knee injury towards the end. We saw Devon Conway from New Zealand early on as well (in the tournament opener against England on Thursday). Something for them to look at but I’m definitely not putting any blame on that for our loss today.”

Following Trott’s comments, the International Cricket Council’s independent pitch consultant, Andy Atkinson, assessed the outfield as ‘average’ but suitable for matches.

“The process for assessing the condition of the pitch and outfield lies with the match officials under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, and the outfield at Dharamsala was rated as ‘average’ after the Afghanistan-Bangladesh match. Additionally, the ICC independent pitch consultant has taken a look at the outfield today, and is comfortable with the conditions – as is Javagal Srinath, the Match Referee for the next game,” clarified an ICC spokesperson.

Turning to the ongoing match between India and New Zealand, Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first. India’s bowlers performed admirably, with Siraj securing the initial wicket by dismissing Devon Conway, and Shami removing Will Young. In the first ten overs, New Zealand only managed to score 34 runs.