Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey
Confusion on Rohit injury situation – Virat Kohli | India captain Kohli describes confusion surrounding Rohit injury situation ahead of AUS tour
Rohit Sharma’s hamstring injury has snowballed into a much bigger controversy for BCCI, Indian cricket team management, and team captain Virat Kohli. In an exclusive interview given to ESPNCricinfo before the first ODI against Australia, Kohli revealed how the team management and the selection board are clueless about Sharma’s availability for the ongoing series against Australia.
“Before we had the selection meeting in Dubai, we had got an email two days before that, which said that he is unavailable for selection [as] he has picked an injury during the IPL,” Kohli said at the virtual media briefing on Thursday in Sydney. “And it mentioned there were a two-week rest and rehab period. The pros and cons and the implications of the injury have been explained to him and he understood that. And he was unavailable for selection. That was the information we got in the mail before the selection meeting. After that he played in the IPL, so we all thought he would be on that flight to Australia, which he wasn’t. And we had no information whatsoever on the reason on why he is not traveling with us.”
During the IPL 2020 edition, the vice-captain of India and Mumbai Indians captain was not in the official team squad that was announced by the BCCI and selection committee for the Australia tour. However, after a few days of rest, he was seen playing for the MI team and went on winning the tournament for the fifth time for the franchise under and also hit a remarkable 68 off 51 in the Final.
Later on, after Kohli declared his paternity leave, BCCI issue a new release adding Sharma, and said, “The BCCI Medical Team has been monitoring Rohit Sharma’s fitness and has briefed All-India Senior Selection Committee on the same. In consultation with Mr Sharma, it has been decided to rest him for the ODIs and T20Is in Australia to regain full fitness and he has been included in India’s Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy”.
In the latest interaction, the team captain said that after that the only other information officially they have received on mail is that he is in the NCA and he’s been assessed and he’ll be further assessed on December 11. “So from the time that the selection meeting happened to the IPL finishing now, when this email came about his assessment at the NCA, there has been no information, there has been lack of clarity. We have been playing the waiting game on this issue for a while now, which is not ideal at all. So, yeah, it’s been very confusing. There has been a lot of uncertainty and lack of clarity around the situation”, he added.
Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.
