'Rahul Dravid punished Rohit, Yuvraj and me' - Pragyan Ojha recalls hilarious incident from Sri Lanka tour

Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha, a close friend and teammate of star batter Rohit Sharma, recently opened up about a hilarious incident during a tour of Sri Lanka, involving legendary Rahul Dravid.

Ojha recently recalled a time when he, Rohit, and Yuvraj Singh were still newcomers in international cricket, and the tour of Sri Lanka featured a star-studded Indian squad with stalwarts like Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, and Dravid in the mix and it was during this tour that the incident took place. The former spinner mentioned getting punished by their senior player.

Recalling a hilarious incident from the tour of Sri Lanka, Ojha said: “Rohit and I were on a tour of Sri Lanka. We were young and new to the team. Dada (Sourav Ganguly), Anil bhai (Kumble), Sachin (Tendulkar) and Rahul Dravid were part of the squad. We were staying at the Taj Samundra. Rohit, Yuvraj Singh and I used to have food together. Once, Rahul bhai told us to run in a vacant area outside the hotel building. Actually, we were punished for taking a lot of time to consume our food,” he said as quoted by crictoday.

Meanwhile, Yuvraj became a white-ball cricket legend, playing a crucial role in India’s 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup triumphs. Ojha had a respectable international career, 141 wickets across all formats. While Rohit has evolved and become one of the most successful Indian captains, guiding the side to ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and ICC Champions Trophy 2025 triumphs. The 38-year-old batter is currently playing for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL as a batter and has been instrumental in giving his side solid starts. Earlier, Ojha had also reflected on Rohit's advice to him during their U19 days.

“The best advice I received was from Rohit Sharma when we were playing U19 cricket. He said, ‘Everyone wants to play for the country because we have come at the U19 level. But if you want to play for India for a long time, then you need to be a match-winner,” Ojha said.