Sharma makes an impact in his ‘backyard’

For Sharma, though, life has come full circle. On Wednesday, when he turned out for Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad, he was making his debut after gaining prominence as a national cricketer on “home soil”. Sharma’s mother Purnima comes from Visakhapatnam, a coastal Andhra city, and father, who’s never stayed out of Mumbai, says young Rohit’s grandparents had lived their entire life here.

Rohit also stumped team mate Y Venugopal Rao with his fluency in Telugu during India A’s tour of Australia in 2006. “His Telugu is good, especially for someone who has stayed all his life in Mumbai,” said Rao.

In fact, such has been his camaraderie with Australian players Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds that Rohit and Rao have been busy teaching the Aussie stalwarts a few key ‘operative’ words in local language. The two gave the youngster a standing ovation when he walked back to the pavilion.

“I just decided to play my normal game, be there and take it forward with each ball,” Sharma said after his innings.

Despite his effort, Rohit ended up on the losing side. But some in the crowd would have taken heart from the fact that the youngster was one of their own.