India, Feb. 20 -- Rohit Sharma made all attempts possible to forget the drop catch. He pounded the ground with ferocious slaps, said sorry to the bowler (Axar Patel) with folded hands and cursed himself till at least the next two overs. So much so that the commentators jokingly asked if there were any penalties in the ICC code of conduct for self-cursing. A drop catch, no matter how undesirable it is, is nothing unusual in international cricket. Then why such an over-the-top reaction from the Indian captain? Because it was not an ordinary drop catch. It denied a hat-trick to Axar Patel.

It would have been Axar's first-ever hat-trick in any form of cricket (including domestic). Only four Indian bowlers - Chetan Sharma, Kapil Dev, Kuldeep ...