Apart from providing entertainment with their on-field skills, cricketers also bring about smiles on the faces of fans by turning into pranksters. India captain Rohit Sharma, with the help of a witty side to his character, had once played a prank on former India spinner Pragyan Ojha, about which he had revealed during an interaction with popular YouTuber Vikram Sathaye.
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Be it with his teammates, wife Ritika Sajdeh, or even the ones orchestrated on the spot involving spectators in the stands, Sharma hardly misses an opportunity to trouble people with his innocuous pranks every now and then.
Rohit Sharma Had Scared The Crap Out Of Pragyan Ojha During Kenya Tour
Sharma did not get enough opportunities to showcase his batting prowess during India A’s tour of Kenya 2007, but he made sure to make judicious use of his time there in the capacity of a prankster.
At the receiving end of the same was his fellow teammate Ojha. In fact, akin a big-match player delivering under pressure, Sharma had so dexterously pulled Ojha’s leg that it reached a point where the latter was almost convinced that his tour had come to a premature end.
As a result, the left-arm spinner, who later went on play alongside Sharma at both Deccan Chargers (2008-2010) and Mumbai Indians (2012-2015) in the Indian Premier League, had stopped talking to anyone for a couple of days!
During an interaction with Vikram Sathaye on his YouTube channel around six years ago, Sharma had revealed that a bunch of players from the squad had went out to have some jet skiing experience. An over-excited Ojha and his partner Yo Mahesh were about to try their hands on jet ski for the first time.
Ignoring the instructions of the instructor at the beach, Ojha pressed the accelerator of the jet ski which immediately took off. After the duo almost smashed the heads of a couple of people present there, they slammed the jet ski into a boat, which consequently caught a mini fire!
It was at this point that Sharma colluded with the jet ski owner and then India A coach Chandu Borde to play a prank which Ojha would never forget.
“The jet ski was absolutely smashed from the front, and he [Pragyan Ojha] had almost started crying. The owner of the jet ski told Pragyan that he would have to pay a few penalties or else he would have to serve a jail sentence. All of this was a prank to scare him. We had briefed the instructor that all the penalties would be paid, but make sure to scare and pressurize him that he would be sent to jail and what not.
“Pragyan got very scared. Chandu sir was our coach then and we had also informed him and asked him to play along. So, even he said, ‘Pragyan, you have to pack your bags, we are sending you home. This behaviour is not tolerable.'”
Sharma further revealed that all of them then left him in guilt for around half-an-hour, but later had informed him about the prank. However, the nature of the prank was such that an angry Ojha was just not in a mood to talk to anyone for a couple of days, nor would he go out with his fellow teammates for meals.
Apart from this particular incident, Sharma was once also involved in scaring the crap out of Mumbai Indians opening partner Ishan Kishan during one of the IPL seasons.
Rohit Sharma Had Played A Toffee Prank With Ritika Sajdeh In 2021
Although not to the extent of the aforementioned couple of incidents, but the Indian captain had also played a prank on his lucky charm Ritika Sajdeh back in October 2021 – during the second phase of the 14th season of the IPL.
A pre-planned one, the MI captain had a piece of chocolate placed inside his fist, and gestured Ritika to go for a fist-bump in order to have a look what’s inside. Perhaps used to her husband’s myriad pranks in the past as well, she was pretty confirmed that there was something fishy yet again. Absolutely scared to her wits, Ritika kept denying to have her way, but ultimately had to give in after repeated assurances from Rohit.
Upon finding a harmless piece of chocolate wrapped in a shiny wrapping paper, Ritika took a sigh of relief as all of her reactions, including the entire video was posted by Sharma on his Instagram handle.
