Rohit Sharma’s hamstring injury grabbed a lot of headlines during the recently held IPL as he missed returned to action within days of being left out of the Australia tour.
While Rohit was subsequently added to the Test squad, his initial omission led to confusion among fans and pundits.
In an exclusive chat with PTI, Rohit recently opened up about the left hamstring injury during the IPL, saying he always knew that the injury was not that serious and he would be battle-ready for the tour Down Under.
“I don’t know what was going on, to be honest and what all were people talking about. But let me put this on record, I was constantly communicating with BCCI and Mumbai Indians,” Rohit quoted.
He hit a match-winning knock of 68 off 50 balls in the IPL final against Delhi Capitals, playing through pain.
He led Mumbai Indians (MI) from the front in the IPL 2020 final against Delhi Capitals (DC), scoring 51-ball 68 to overhaul the target of 157 in 18.4 overs with 5 wickets in hand.
Rohit is currently doing strength and conditioning work at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru before heading to Australia.
“I told them (Mumbai Indians) that I can take the field since it is the shortest format and I will be able to manage the situation quite nicely. Once I made my mind clear, it was all about focussing on what I needed to do,” he said.
“Hamstring is feeling absolutely fine. Just started the process of getting it nice and strong. Before I play the longer format, I absolutely needed to be clear in mind that there is no stone that is left unturned, that’s probably the reason, I’m at the NCA,” Rohit added.
For Rohit, the outside chitchat regarding his injury and his initial exclusion from the tour of Australia, didn’t matter much.
“So for me, it was not a concern what x, y or z was talking about like whether he would make it to Australia,” he said.
“Once the injury happened, the next two days all I did was to figure out what I can do in the next 10 days, whether I will be able to play or not.
The Mumbaikar feels unless a player goes to the ground, he won’t know how the body is shaping up.
“But every day, hamstring (degree of injury) was changing. The way it was responding was changing, so I was feeling quite confident that I could play and that is the communication that I had with MI at that point.
“I told them that I think I will be okay to play just before play-offs. If there is any discomfort, I won’t be playing the play-offs.”
All Rohit needed was three and half weeks to get ready for Tests and he fails to understand what the fuss was all about given that the series starts December 17.
“Of course, there is still some work that needs to be done on my hamstring. That’s why I didn’t go to Australia for the white-ball leg as there are back-to-back games. Around 6 games in 11 days,” he said.
“So I thought if I get to work on my body for 25 days, I can probably go and play the Test matches. So it was an easy decision for me and I don’t know why it became so complicated for others,” Rohit concluded.
(With PTI inputs)
