India fast bowler Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the tour to Australia, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a release on Thursday, November 26. Rohit Sharma, who is recovering from a hamstring injury he sustained during the Indian Premier League (IPL), will be next assessed on December 11. He is rehabilitating at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Rohit’s participation in the Test series will be ascertained after the assessment. T Natarajan, who was part of India’s Twenty20 International squad has been added to the One-day International squad as a back-up for Navdeep Saini, who complained of back spasm.
“Ishant has recovered completely from his side strain injury sustained during IPL 2020 in the U.A.E. While he’s building up his workload in order to achieve Test match fitness, Mr Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy,” BCCI said in its statement.
The BCCI release also revealed that Rohit travelled back to India after the conclusion of the IPL in the UAE to be with his ailing father.
“Mr Rohit Sharma had to come back to Mumbai after the IPL to attend his ailing father. His father is now recuperating well and that has allowed him to travel to the NCA and start his rehabilitation,” read the release.
This revelation comes in the light of India captain Virat Kohli’s comments earlier on Thursday where he said there wasn’t any clarity as to why Rohit had not travelled with the team to Australia after playing in the IPL final.
As for Ishant, BCCI said that the pacer has recovered fully from the side strain he sustained during IPL 2020 and “he’s building up his workload in order to achieve Test match fitness”.
However, Ishant has been ruled out of the four-match Test series that begins on December 17 in Adelaide.
Earlier, Kohli had said the team had been “playing the waiting game” on the status of Rohit’s injury.
“Before the selection meeting, we got a mail that he is unavailable, that he has picked up an injury during the IPL. It said that the pros and cons of the injury were explained to him and he understood and he was unavailable,” Kohli said.
“After that (the selection meeting) he played in the IPL and we all thought he would be on that flight to Australia and we had no information on why he is not travelling with us. There has been no information, there has been lack of clarity.
“We have been playing the waiting game,” said Kohli.
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India play three ODIs against Australia starting Friday, November 27, with the first game at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
The ODI series will be followed by three T20Is and four Tests.