BCCI President and former India captain Sourav Ganguly has hit back at questions regarding leaving Rohit Sharma out of the touring party for the limited-overs series in Australia. Rohit had injured his hamstring during the recently-concluded IPL 2020.
He sat out for four matches, returning in Mumbai Indians’ last league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad and then playing in the playoffs for the team. MI won the IPL 2020- their fifth title overall.
However, during this time, the BCCI announced the Indian squad for the Australia tour later this year and Rohit Sharma’s name was curiously missing from any of the squads. BCCI had said that Rohit was not included because of his injury, but on the same day, he was seen batting in the nets and then participated in the remainder of IPL 13, leading to many questioning the miscommunication between Rohit’s franchise and the BCCI regarding his fitness.
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BCCI then announced that Rohit Sharma will be added to the Test squad, but he will return to India to join the NCA in Bengaluru to work on his fitness before flying to Australia for the 4-Test series.
However, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has now said, in an interview with The Week, that "Rohit is still 70 percent [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 further said.
On November 3, Ganguly had also asked Sharma to exercise caution when deciding whether or not to return for the Mumbai Indians during the playoffs' stage.
"Rohit is injured at the moment. Otherwise, why would we leave out a player like him? He is the vice-captain of the national (limited-overs) team. We will have to assess him. I don't know (when he can come back). He hasn't played so far since the time he has got injured. We want him to recover. It's the BCCI's job to get their best players on the park. If he recovers, he plays,” Ganguly had said.
Talking about BCCI’s communication with the media with regards to player injuries, Ganguly said that people don’t know how the Indian cricket board works. This came in regards to updates on Rohit’s and Wriddhiman Saha’s injuries.
"Who should know [about player injuries]? We know, 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,” Ganguly said.
"Wriddhi is traveling 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,” he added.
The Indian touring party reached Sydney on Thursday and immediately went into quarantine for two weeks.
(The Week inputs)
