India's national cricket team captain, Rohit Sharma, faced another challenging day in Test cricket after being dismissed for a duck by New Zealand’s Tim Southee on the opening day of the second Test in Pune. The early dismissal, which came in just the third over, dealt a significant blow to India’s top order, leaving the team at 1/1.

In a key moment during India’s first innings, Southee bowled a good-length delivery angling into the middle and off-stump. Rohit, caught on the back foot with little foot movement, attempted a defensive stroke but was undone by the sharp inward movement. The ball took a slight deflection off his back pad, clipping the top of the off-stump, sending the Indian skipper back to the pavilion without scoring.

Watch Rohit Sharma's Dismissal

This is not the first time Rohit has been dismissed in a similar fashion, as former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra pointed out during a discussion on Colors Cineplex. Chopra, analyzing the dismissal, highlighted that this recurring pattern has been observed in Rohit's recent dismissals.

Chopra remarked, "Of course, Tim Southee has dismissed him twice in this series, so it will seem like it's a problem against him. However, he got out similarly to Taskin (Ahmed). Remember, it was a similar ball, it was the Chennai ground, second innings and the catch went behind."

"The issue, which Rohit will have to address himself, is that the front foot is not going anywhere. You are just standing in your crease and when the front foot is stuck and the back foot doesn't move, there can be only one reaction to the ball—your body will open up. When your body opens up like that, it looks bad as well."

This dismissal marked another instance where Rohit was left vulnerable due to limited foot movement, something Chopra believes the Indian captain will need to work on in upcoming innings.

"So he will have to address this, as he did in Bengaluru's second innings. He was taking his foot slightly more forward there as compared to the first innings. You might see him doing that here as well in the second innings but when he got out, the ball looked better than it actually was because the body had opened up," Chopra observed.