Rohit Sharma and Ravi Shastri
The BCCI last week announced the squads for India's tour of Australia, leading to a furore on social media. One prominent name missing from the list was India's limited-overs vice-captain -- Rohit Sharma. He was sidelined from the side owing to a hamstring injury which he suffered in the on-going IPL 2020.
Rohit's oust from the much-anticipated tour Down Under raised a few eyebrows, especially after he was spotted training in Mumbai Indians (MI) nets. India veteran Sunil Gavaskar also called for transparency regarding Rohit's fitness.
Reacting to the conundrum involving Rohit's omission, former India opener Virender Sehwag doesn't believe that head coach Ravi Shastri was unaware about the MI skipper's condition. In an interview last week, Shastri had revealed that it wasn't his call to keep Rohit out from the Australia series.
The head coach had said that 'Rohit could be in danger of injuring himself again' while speaking on the possibility of his recovery to the Indian side.
"I don't think that it is possible that Ravi Shastri did not know about Rohit Sharma's situation," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz. "Even if he is not a part of the selection committee, the selectors must have spoken to him a day or two days ago regarding what he was thinking, and taken his feedback and inputs.
"I do not agree with this statement of Ravi Shastri that he is not a part of the selection committee. Even if it is not official, the coach and captain must have spoken unofficially to the selectors regarding who should be in the team for the Australia tour," he added.
Sehwag further pointed out that if the selectors felt Rohit was not fit, he could have been kept in the squad and a replacement could have been announced for him.
"If he got injured, they could have called in a replacement for him. But he was not kept in India's squad, this I don't understand. This is a strange year. Now, what you will do? He played this game against SRH. He will play the playoffs games. He is saying I am fit. Then why didn't you pick him,"
After missing four games in the on-going IPL 2020, the MI captain returned to the playing XI on Tuesday but his side suffered a 10-wicket defeat against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). When asked about his injury after the match, Rohit said that his hamstring was fine. "Ya, absolutely!" Rohit replied when commentator Mark Nicholas asked him if his hamstring was fine.
