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India captain Rohit Sharma’s latest Instagram story is sure to ring alarm bells about Mumbai’s weather. The Indian team landed in the city on Monday for their next World Cup 2023 match against Sri Lanka on Thursday. Rohit shared an aerial view of Mumbai from his flight. In the photo, hardly anything was visible as a thick smog covered the city.
“Mumbai, yeh kya ho gaya (Mumbai, what’s happened)?” Rohit captained the photo with a mask-wearing emoji.
Mumbai’s weather has been a matter of concern over the last couple of weeks. As per CPCB, Air Quality Index (AQI) in Mumbai stands at 161 on Tuesday morning, which falls in the ‘moderate’ category. The worst air quality has been recorded at Bandra Kurla Complex where the AQI levels have touched 257, followed by Sion where the AQI stands at 218, Bandra East’s Kherwadi area (198) and Navy Nagar in Colaba (189).
The AQI for Monday was no better. It was 143 on Monday morning while it stood at 152 on Sunday. An AQI rating of 0-50 is considered to be good, 51-100 is rated as satisfactory, 101-200 is classified as moderate, 201-300 is poor and 301-400 is very poor. Above 400 AQI is rated as severe.
According to an Indian Express report, the AQI breached the severe category in Mumbai’s Vile Parle barely a couple of weeks ago while Andheri, one of the busiest parts of the city, recorded an AQI of 347 on October 17.
Rohit is not the first cricketer to be taken aback by the poor air quality of Mumbai in this World Cup. Joe Root also complained about it during England’s matches. “I’ve not played in anything like that before. I’ve obviously played in hotter conditions, and probably more humid conditions. But it just felt like you couldn’t get your breath. It was like you were eating the air. It was unique,” Root had said.
What really makes the current Mumbai weather worrying is the fact that someone like Rohit, who has played all of his cricket here, is expressing surprise about the conditions. The India captain, however, would be hoping that the weather or anything else does not play any part whatsoever in India’s winning run at the World Cup.
India have won six out of six matches in this tournament and are the only team to still remain unbeaten. Rohit himself has played a huge part in it. He is India’s highest run-scorer so far with 398 runs in six matches. He has a century and two half-centuries to his name. His 87-run knock in the last match against England in a challenging Lucknow pitch was one of the highlights of the tournament.
India, currently at 12 points, will become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals if they beat Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium. As Hardik Pandya is still unfit to play, there is unlikely to be any changes in India’s XI. Bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja have played crucial roles in the last two matches to help India stay unbeaten.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will look to bounce back from the defeat to Afghanistan.
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