Former India wicketkeeper-batsman-turned-commentator Deep Dasgupta has, on Tuesday (October 27), reacted to the non-inclusion of opening batsman Rohit Sharma in any of three squads announced by the BCCI on Monday (October 26) for the tour of Australia in November.
BCCI has announced the teams for three T20Is, as many as ODIs, and four Test matches for the upcoming tour of Australia on Monday and inured Mayank Agarwal’s selection while Rohit’s exclusion has created a lot of confusion among the cricket fraternity and fans.
Rohit, Mumbai Indians' captain, suffered a hamstring injury during an IPL 2020 clash against KXIP on October 18 and since then he has been sidelined for the last two games – which has been claimed the reason behind his exemption from all three squads.
However, Hitman was recently seen hitting the nets at MI practice that has left most people baffled including Sunil Gavaskar and Dasgupta, questioning Rohit’s exclusion from the Indian squad, though, BCCI made it clear that the opener’s injury has been monitoring by the medical team.
Well, there was one more reason that really didn’t please Dasgupta and that was the announcement of making KL Rahul vice-captain of the limited-overs squad for the Australia series despite BCCI didn’t clearly rule Rohit out of the much-anticipated tour later this year.
Reacting to the same, former cricketer has insisted that Mumbai star should be included in the Indian team in all three squads for the Australia series once he is fit. However, he feels the injury concern could be the reason behind BCCI’s move but couldn’t understand why they declared vice-captain in so hurry.
Dasgupta told Sports Today: “Rohit still hasn’t played any game in a while now, but I guess if he is fit to play for the Mumbai Indians then he will be part of the national team. But what I know is that he is still 50:50, although he has just started to bat in the nets.”
He continued, “I guess it is just a matter of time. As soon as he is fit to play a game or a few games, then he will be ready. It is a hamstring issue and you don’t want to include someone who is not 100 percent fit. If Rohit is fit, he has to be there. There is no doubt about it. Maybe Mayank Agarwal’s injury is not as serious and therefore his name is included. But a fit Rohit Sharma has to be included in the team.”
Dasgupta feels the announcement of the vice-captain could have been on hold at least for a week to seen whether Rohit could make the Australia tour.
He signed off, “Maybe announcing the vice-captain could have been on hold. They could have waited for Rohit’s injury details for another week, and then gone ahead with it [declaring the vice-captain].”
