Ishant Sharma ruled out of Australia tour, Rohit Sharma faces race against time

Ishant Sharma has been officially ruled out of the four-Test series against Australia starting from December 17 in Adelaide. Ishant Sharma, who sustained an abdominal muscle tear and managed to play only one game in IPL 2020 for Delhi Capitals, was working on regaining full fitness at the NCA. According to a release sent by the BCCI, it read, “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, Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.”

There were questions on Ishant Sharma whether he would be ready for the rigours of the Test matches after an injury-filled year that saw him miss the second Test against New Zealand in Christchurch due to a calf strain. Prior to that, Ishant Sharma was racing against time to be fit for the New Zealand Tests when he suffered an ankle injury playing for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy clash against Vidarbha. Ishant made it in time and took five wickets in the Wellington Test.

Rohit Sharma races against time

In the same release, the BCCI provided an update on Rohit Sharma. The statement read, “He (Rohit Sharma)  is presently undergoing rehabilitation at the NCA. Mr Rohit Sharma’s next assessment will be conducted on December 11th following which the BCCI will have clarity on his participation in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.”

This statement means that Rohit Sharma’s availability for the Test series is facing a race against time. The Mumbai Indians skipper will begin his rehabilitation at the NCA now after he had to come back to Mumbai after the IPL to attend to his ailing father. The BCCI release stated that his father is now recuperating well and that has allowed him to travel to the NCA and start his rehabilitation. 

The major logistical issues facing Rohit Sharma’s availability for Australia is two-fold. International flights are suspended in India until December 31. The other issue is the 14-day mandatory quarantine in Australia due to the coronavirus. If Rohit Sharma boards the flight on January 1, he will anyway miss the remaining two Tests in Sydney and Brisbane. There have been reports that Sourav Ganguly is negotiating a reduced quarantine period for Rohit Sharma with Cricket Australia. The main reason why Rohit Sharma will have to undergo the mandatory quarantine of 14 days is because he is not coming from a bio-bubble. Unlike the rest of the Indian cricket team who came from one bio-bubble in Dubai to another in Sydney, they have had the chance to train and be in isolated quarantine in Sydney. It remains to be seen whether Rohit Sharma will be available for the Tests although he has now been added to the Test squad.

In other developments, T Natarajan has been added as the back-up to the ODI team after Navdeep Saini complained of back spasms which might keep him out of the first ODI in Sydney.

India’s ODI squad: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan.