‘I dropped you’: Rohit Sharma points finger at Jaker Ali after he returns favour by dropping easy catch of KL Rahul

Tasking Ahmed closed his eyes and covered his face. Jaker Ali, the fielder, wanted to dig a hole and dive in it. For he had returned India captain Rohit Sharma's favour by dropping KL Rahul's catch. Which drop was the costliest? You can debate all you want but the expression on Rohit's face narrated it all. He had a big smile, the one that stems more from relief than happiness. There were, obviously, two reasons for his reaction. One was, of course, because Rahul got a life at a crucial juncture in India's run chase. The second, and perhaps the bigger reason, was getting the favour back from Jaker, whom Rohit dropped on nought.

Rohit's drop denied a hat-trick to Axar Patel and cost India dearly. Jaker went on to score 68 runs, forging a record 154-run partnership - Bangladesh's highest in ODIs against India for any wicket - with Towhidd Hridoy (100) to rescue Bangladesh. If Rohit had taken his catch in the first slip in the powerplay, Bangladesh would have been reduced to 35/6, but instead, they went on to post 228, a competitive total on a pitch that became more and more difficult as the game progressed.

Rohit was gutted. He made no attempts to hide his displeasure and disgust for himself but little did he know that Jaker would present India with a return gift in the same match.

India still needed 63 runs off 13.4 overs with six wickets in hand. KL Rahul and Shubman Gill, despite being set, were finding it difficult to score at a steady pace. Taskin Ahmed dragged it short. The ball expectedly stopped. Rahul, for some weird reason, decided to play a wild slog, knowing very well that it was extremely difficult to hit the cross-batted shot on the pitch. He got no timing at all and dragged it to the deep mid-wicket fielder.

Jaker stationed himself nicely under it, looking ever so comfortable to gobble up a simple catch, but right at the last moment, he seemed to have lost sight of the ball. The infamous Dubai lights? or a lapse in concentration? We would never know. The ball popped out, much to the agony of Bangladesh.

The cameras immediately panned towards Rohit in the dugout. The Indian captain could not stop giggling. “I dropped you,” he said twice before breaking into another round of giggle.

Rahul did not provide Bangladesh with another opportunity, as he and Shubman Gill wrestled home the advantage to knock the 229-run target in 46 overs, getting India off to a winning start in the Champions Trophy. Rahul remained unbeaten at 35, while Gill showed impeccable maturity to notch up his 8th ODI century.