Mumbai Indians’ captain Rohit Sharma was not named in the squad for the tour of Australia and his exclusion has raised a few eyebrows in the cricket fraternity. Actually, he suffered a hamstring injury in his left leg on October 18 while playing against Kings XI Punjab. This injury made him miss his few games and was ruled out of the whole Australia series. Kieron Pollard led Mumbai Indians in his absence.
However, he played the last three games for his side and after seeing him play, the selectors decided to include him in the longest format of the game.
Speaking on Rohit Sharma’s exclusion in ODI and T20I squads, the President of BCCI, Sourav Ganguly stated that Rohit Sharma is just 70% fit.
“Rohit is still 70 per cent [fit], why don’t you find out from Rohit himself? That is why he is still not picked for the ODIs and T20s Down Under. He has been added to the Test squad,” Ganguly said in an interview with The Week when asked about Sharma playing for his franchise not long after being left out of the India touring party for Australia on fitness grounds.
If reports to be believed, the opener will undergo rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and from there he will board the flight to join Team India ahead of the first Test in Adelaide, starting December 17.
People Don’t Understand Injuries, That is Why They Talk Rubbish: Sourav Ganguly
Besides Rohit Sharma, wicket-Keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha is also suffering from a hamstring injury and this is the reason why he missed the last few games for SunRisers Hyderabad. Saha has also been selected only in the Test Squad and is not a part of the limited-overs format. However, unlike Rohit Sharma, Saha has travelled with the Indian team to Australia.
Speaking about Saha, Ganguly said that there are proper trainers and physios who are keeping eyes on the physical fitness of all the players. He further reckoned that people don’t understand how BCCI works and that’s why they talk rubbish.
“Who should know [about player injuries]? We know that the Indian physio knows, the NCA knows,” Ganguly said. “I think people don’t know how the BCCI works. The BCCI trainers, physio, and Wriddhi himself know that he has two hamstring issues. People don’t understand injuries, that is why they talk rubbish.
“Wriddhi is travelling to Australia because he will be fit for Tests. He is not part of the shorter formats. For the entire duration of the IPL, Indian physios and trainers were in Dubai. [India physio] Dr. Nitin Patel is managing injuries and monitoring it all,” Sourav Ganguly concluded.
