The confusion around Rohit Sharma’s availability for India’s tour of Australia continues to raise quite a few eyebrows and from the looks of it he will not be travelling with the Indian team.
According to a report in a leading newspaper, Rohit, who is expected to lead out the Mumbai Indians in their quest for a fifth IPL title on Tuesday against Delhi Capitals in Dubai, can join the Indian team only if he clears a fitness test that will be conducted by the India team physio. Rohit was left out of the squad for the tour that was announced on October 26.
“Rohit won’t travel to Australia unless he clears a fitness test conducted by Team India physio Nitin Patel. Unless Patel and the National Cricket Academy declare him fit, Rohit is not going to Australia,” the Times of India quoted a source in BCCI.
“However, we’re keen to see that Rohit is fit in time for the Tests series, considering that Virat has written to the board that he may miss three Tests due to personal reasons in January.”
India begin their tour of Australia with the first ODI on November 27 in Sydney. The three-match ODI series will be followed by three T20Is before the four-match Test series commences.
Recently, BCCI President and former India captain Sourav Ganguly also said that he was looking forward to the Mumbai opener being fit for the red-ball part of the tour Down Under.
“Hope so, he’s got a hamstring tear, that’s what the physios of Mumbai and India have reported. He’s a batsman and not a fast bowler. We want him to recover because he’s an asset for India,” Ganguly told India Today.
“He along with Virat Kohli make the team stronger. I don’t know if he’ll be fit straightaway for the white ball series but we’re looking forward to Rohit being fit for the four Tests.”
Rohit had injured his hamstring in the IPL league stage match against KXIP and subsequently missed four games before returning to the line up against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final round-robin game.
On his return against the SRH in the final league stage game, Rohit had said he was feeling fine with regards to the injury.
"I was happy to be back, it's been a while. I'm looking forward to play few more games here, let's see what happens. It (hamstring) is fine, absolutely," Rohit had said after the match.
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