The Rohit Sharma injury saga continues, stirs up a controversy

Rohit Sharma’s hamstring injury has snowballed into a major controversy after he played the Mumbai Indians’s (MI) game against SunRisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL), just days after the national selectors ignored him from all three formats for this month’s Australia tour — apparently due to injury.

Neither the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has so far explained as to why Sharma was excluded from the national Test, ODI, and T20 teams, nor has the chairman of selectors as the teams were announced through a press release, and there was no media interaction with the any BCCI official over the team selection.

While announcing the team on October 26, the BCCI merely said: “The BCCI Medical Team will continue to monitor the progress of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma.” This smartly drafted sentence does not even mention the word ‘injury’, leave alone the exact nature of the injuries of the two players.

This lack of transparency on the part of the BCCI and its apparent lack of communication with the MI franchise over their captain has embarrassed all parties. Sharma said at the post-match presentation on Tuesday that his hamstring was absolutely fine and that he was fit. “I’m looking forward to play few more games here, let’s see what happens. It [hamstring] is fine, absolutely,” he said.

This happened the same day BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was quoted by a section of the media as saying that Sharma was not picked for the Australia series because he was ‘unfit’.

The current selection committee says that it would go by the BCCI medical team’s report. The report says Sharma is injured and is being monitored. For them and BCCI, he remains unfit until it is proven otherwise.

“What is the issue? Ganguly said that he was ignored [by the national selectors] because of fitness issues. The ball is in Mumbai Indians’ court. They need to find out if he is fit to” a source close to the selection committee told IANS.

However, Sunil Gavaskar, former India captain feels delighted to see Rohit Sharma fit and back in action which he feels is the “best news for Indian cricket” ahead of the tour of Australia. Rohit, who sustained a left hamstring injury during an IPL game against Kings XI Punjab, was back in the park against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday, a week after being excluded from the Australia-bound squad on fitness grounds. “Whatever has transpired earlier with regards to his (Rohit) injury, keeping that aside, I would say it’s a great news for Indian cricket that Rohit Sharma is fit,” Gavaskar told YouTube channel Sports Tak

Nevertheless, Dilip Vengsarkar, former India captain, and former chief selector, questioned Rohit’s participation in IPL and asked if the league was more important than representing the country. “Now, the question here is, is the IPL more important to him than playing for India? Is the club more important than playing for the nation for him? Will the BCCI take a call on this? Or is it that the BCCI physio faltered in diagnosing Rohit’s injury correctly,” Vengsarkar questioned.

(With agency inputs)