Rohit Sharma was not in the original squad that was selected by the board for the tour of Australia. Rohit Sharma suffered a hamstring injury in the middle of the IPL and was not able to play 3 games for the Mumbai Indians. On the day the touring party was announced by the BCCI, Rohit Sharma was seen practising in the nets for Mumbai Indians and ready to play in the next day’s game. Infact, he went onto to play in the remaining games. On the whole, a total of 3 consecutive games. It never looked like Rohit was injured at all. His situation is completely confusing. Is the BCCI hiding something when it comes to Rohit?
Rohit Sharma will indeed travel to Australia
Now it has emerged that Rohit will indeed travel to Australia for the tests but he will not be part of the limited overs squad. Rohit Sharma plays 3 consecutive games in the IPL including a match winning 68 in the IPL finals. He will be part of the test matches that starts on December 17. However, he is injured and needs rest in the interim. Someone will have to explain the absurdity of the whole situation to me. I find this a complete nonsense. A player is either fit or not fit to play. It cannot be both.
Rohit Sharma played in the finals and he scored a match winning 68 including 5 boundaries and 4 sixes which translates to 44 runs. This means that for the remaining 24 runs he must have taken singles and doubles which involves lot of running and sometimes quickly too. Someone with a hamstring tear will be able to tell you that this is simply not possible.
T20 cricket places a lot of stress on the body because of its very nature. Scoring boundaries also requires lot of power and timing which will place undue stress on the hamstring. The fact that Rohit scored 50% of his runs in boundaries and the rest by running says that he never had any issue with his hamstring or he recovered quickly. The selectors and the board must have known this and must have named him in the original squad but they didn’t. The whole affair is extremely messy.
I am thinking about few theories about this whole episode
First, the physio who assessed Rohit before the squad was named must have been extremely incompetent that he wasn’t able to diagnose the actual problem.
Second, the board and the selectors were deliberately misled by the physio and hence he wasn’t able to find a spot in the touring squad. In such a scenario, severe action must be taken against the physio who assessed Rohit.
Third, Rohit himself wanted to avoid playing in Australia and especially as an opener so that he can avoid not performing in the series will be able to save his test career which at this late stage, promises to finally explode.
Fourth, at this stage of his career, Rohit sees more of himself as a limited overs specialist and thereby is not willing to play test cricket. However, he is unable to admit that fact.
Fifth, with increasing success as the captain, albeit in limited overs, with one international tournament victory, Nidahas trophy, to go with 5 IPL trophies, there a growing voices to make Rohit Sharma the captain of the T20 side and Kohli’s unwillingness to relinquish captaincy.
“If Rohit Sharma doesn’t become India’s captain, it’s their loss, not Rohit’s,” Gambhir told ESPNcricinfo
Michael Vaughan
“Without question Rohit Sharma should be the Indian T20 captain .. fantastic man manager & leader .. & he knows exactly how to win T20 games .. it would also give Virat chance to take a breather and just be the player .. it’s works for all other teams around the world ..#IPL2020,” he wrote.
Sixth, the above maybe the reason for Rohit playing only in the tests and not the limited overs in the garb of giving him rest.
Seven, disciplinary action has been taken against Rohit Sharma eventhough it is not clear for what.
Time the board and more precisely, Saurav Ganguly comes clean
Saurav Ganguly, the loud mouthed board president has said that Rohit Sharma is only 70% fit and because of that he is in the test squad thereby giving him more time to recover. This was barely a few days later when Dilip Vengsarkar criticsed Ganguly for treading into areas into which he must not tread.
“Rohit is still 70 per cent [fit],” Ganguly said in an interview with The Week.
“If he recovers, he plays.”
This after Rohit played 3 straight games in the IPL. Let us remember the fact that Rohit Sharma was completely left out of the entire series because of his injury after which he went onto to play lot of games in the IPL. At that point, the board clearly mentioned that Rohit is not in the squad because he was injured. Ishant Sharma was also injured during the IPL but the board was categorical when he was included in the squad hoping that he will play in the tests which was anyway he will be selected for. If the board can be so clear about Ishant Sharma’s injury, why weren’t they unclear about Rohit’s injury? What are they trying to hide? More precisely, whom are they trying to save? These are questions for which I don’t think we will ever get an answer.
Wrapping up is the BCCI hiding something when it comes to Rohit?
In the meanwhile, the Indian touring team have reached Sydney and at the moment are in quarantine for the next 14 days with limited areas to access. The series starts on the 27th of November with the first test on the 17 of December. With Kohli out of the last 3 tests, let us hope that India puts up a decent fight. What do you think of the BCCI’s secrecy? Do you think we will ever come to know of the situation with Rohit Sharma? Please pass on your comments in the section below