Rohit Sharma, who was caught in a controversy over his hamstring injury, has come out in the open and stated that he has been in constant communication with the BCCI. The opener was not included in the ODI, T20I, and the Test team for the tour of Australia, with the board basing his selection on his fitness report.
“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 told PTI. “So for me, it was not a concern what x, y, or z was talking about like whether he would make it to Australia.”
The Mumbai Indians skipper missed a few games of the IPL in the UAE and was excluded from the Indian squads for the Australia series that begins from November 27. However, just a few hours after being omitted, his IPL team released a social media video where Sharma was seen batting in the nets. The incident led to a huge controversy as critics questioned the lack of transparency by the BCCI. Rohit was later included in the Test team but has been excluded from the T20I and the ODI team.
“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 said.
Source: Twitter (IPL)
Rohit later returned to play the last three games of Mumbai’s campaign. He smashed a fine 68 in the finals against Delhi Capitals to take his team over the line.
Neither the BCCI nor Mumbai Indians had specified the extent of his injury, which further led to a lot of discussions. Rohit is currently recuperating at the NCA in Bengaluru and will be joining the Indian team later for the first Test that begins on December 17.
“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? Unless one goes to the ground, one won’t know how the body is shaping up,” he added.
“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.
He, however, added that he is yet to recover 100%. “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, on the upcoming ODI and Twenty20 series.
“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,” he said.