The two veteran Indian cricketers, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma will be missing the first two Tests of the upcoming series against Australia due to fitness issues. With both undergoing rehabilitation after sustaining injuries in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, are in a race against time to feature in the last two games against the Aussies.
Rohit Sharma, who struggled with a hamstring injury while playing for Mumbai Indians, reportedly failed to get a go-ahead by the NCA till December 8. A 14-day quarantine then puts him out of action till December 22. Though Rohit doesn’t need much match-practice having been an active player in the IPL till the final, his availability till the third Test has been ruled out.
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When it comes to Ishant, he ‘needs to board the plane’ immediately to be available for the penultimate Test of the series as he lacks not just in fitness but also match practice. One of the sources of ESPNCricinfo said, “If there is a T20 game and he needs to just bowl four overs, Ishant is good to go immediately, but for him to get back to Test-match fitness, he needs four weeks of proper bowling still.”
It has been learned that Ishant is at 70-80% at present. While he is good to play a T20 contest, it’s his ability to bowl longer spells in Test cricket that is under question. As for him, he needs to be on a flight as soon as possible — much like what head coach Ravi Shastri had said — or else he would be out of the last couple of Test matches.
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If Rohit fails to recover in time, the team management has reportedly asked for Shreyas Iyer as the replacement. For Ishant, however, there’s no need for a replacement as they already have net bowlers like Kartik Tyagi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, and Ishan Porel Down Under. With Mohammed Siraj also deciding to stay in Australia despite his father’s death, the team has quite a few pace-bowling options to choose from.
