The Indian team is currently in Australia gearing up for a full series against Australia which will begin from 27th November. The team was already facing few concerns in the test squad with Wriddhiman Saha being injured during the IPL and Virat Kohli to leave after the first test in Adelaide. Now the team has suffered another blow coming in the form of Rohit and Ishant being ruled out of the first two tests against the Australian team as per reports.
Rohit Sharma suffered a hamstring injury during the IPL in a match against KXIP. Similarly Ishant too was injured during the IPL and was ruled out the entire tournament due to the injury. Meanwhile Rohit wasn’t ruled out of the tournament, but didn’t play the league matches for MI. He straight away came into the playoffs to play for MI.
When the team was announced for the Australian tour, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma weren’t part of the side as they were injured and we’re being monitored by the BCCI for the tour. But Rohit playing the playoffs sparked outrage that why was Rohit not being picked in the squad. Eventually the BCCI added Rohit Sharma in the test side. But now the reports are emerging that Rohit is still not fully prepared for the test matches. Ishant who was seen bowling beautifully in the NCA nets has also been declared match unfit and has been advised to bowl minimum 20 overs in a day. Rohit also in a recent interview has said that he is fully fit and just needed some help from the physios at NCA. The coach Ravi Shastri said that both the players have to be on the flight to Australia within 2 days if they have to play the first test. And that not happening it is clear that both of them won’t be featuring in the first two test matches. Shreyas Iyer who is already in Australia is expected to be kept as a reserve batsmen in place of Rohit. Iyer has a great red ball record for Mumbai as he has played 54 games for them and has scored 4592 runs averaging a stunning 52.18 for them. While three extra pacers namely Ishan Porel and Karthik Tyagi are already present in Australia. There is no official statement from the BCCI yet on this.
The test series will begin from 17th December.
