 Trott retained the captaincy when Andrew Stoddart returned to Australia with his English team in 1897 – 98. Stoddart's team got away to a good start when they won the First Test in Sydney by nine wickets, K. S. Ranjitsinhji scoring 175 runs. With Joe Darling, Trott devised a plan to curb Ranjitsinhji's run scoring. An exponent of the leg glance, "Ranji" would take a last look at the field before he took guard. Taking advantage of this fact, after he took strike, the Australians deliberately weakened the off side with two men placed about 10 metres (33 ft) away from him. Bowling a leg side line, the Australians aimed for a catch from a shot played to that side. Darling said of the plan, "As soon as he had his last look and the bowler was at the point of delivering the ball, we shifted positions by a few yards, sometimes one way, sometimes the other. Occasionally, only one would move and sometimes none would move. [...] This eventually put him clean off his game." The English captain Archie MacLaren agreed saying, "Ranji is in a blue funk". Regardless of the tactics, Ranji made 457 runs at an average of 50.77 for the Test series.
