India’s star batsman Rohit Sharma geared up for India’s last two Tests against Australia as he resumed training on Thursday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed on its Twitter handle. Rohit, who had been in a 14-day quarantine in Sydney after his arrival from India in mid-December, flew to Melbourne on Wednesday to join the team.
“The Hitman is here and has just got the engine started!” wrote BCCI on Instagram. On Thursday, the BCCI tweeted pictures of the India opener doing catching practice.
“The engine is just getting started and here is a quick glimpse of what lies ahead,” the BCCI wrote on twitter with the pictures.
Rohit’s match fitness will be crucial as he has not played any cricket since the Indian Premier League final on 10 November.
He had stayed back in India to recuperate at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru even though the decision made the regular India skipper Virat Kohli unhappy.
Kohli had said prior to the ODI series that he had not been informed about Rohit’s progress and that he would have loved to have him recuperate in Australia instead of NCA.
Since arrival, the hard quarantine has meant that he has not had a chance of practice. Rohit’s participation in the remaining two Tests, to be held in Sydney and Brisbane, will depend on assessment by the team’s medical staff and management, as stated in a BCCI release shared before Rohit›s departure to Australia. India coach Ravi Shastri too made it clear that Rohit wouldn›t simply walk in to the side.
“We will have a chat with him to see where he is placed physically because he has been quarantined for a couple of weeks. We will have to see now how he feels before we take the call,” Shastri had told media after the second Test which India won.
Rohit last played a Test over a year back, against Bangladesh in Kolkata. That was also India’s first pink-ball Test.
The right-handed batsman had injured his hamstring during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 and although he returned to the field to lead Mumbai to a record fifth IPL title, he didn’t travel with the team to Australia subsequently.
Earlier this month, Rohit was declared clinically fit for the tour by the BCCI and he joined the team in time for the third Test.
The four-match series is level at 1-1 after India won the second Test in Melbourne by eight wickets after losing the first Test in Adelaide by the same margin.
The Sydney Test begins on 7 January.