On Thursday, the veteran Indian opener, Rohit Sharma started his fitness training at the National Cricket Academy. He has been excluded from India’s limited-overs squad for the Australia tour. However, the selectors included him in the revised Test squad after he played two IPL games for Mumbai Indians besides the final.

Though Rohit said he was absolutely fine, the BCCI felt he needed more time to attain complete fitness after suffering the hamstring injury he had suffered during the IPL, triggering a huge debate over his fitness status. He had also scored a fluent 68 in the IPL final which his team won by a handsome margin. 

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Rohit’s fitness has become even more crucial since regular skipper Virat Kohli will be missing the four-match Test series after the first match as his wife Anushka Sharma is expecting a baby. On Wednesday, senior pacer Ishant Sharma, who is also doing his injury rehab at the NCA, bowled full tilt under the supervision of chief selector Sunil Joshi and NCA head Rahul Dravid.

Both Ishant and Rohit will fly to Australia together and undergo a 14-day quarantine before joining the team. The injury in common language is side strain and Ishant has been going through his extensive rehabilitation work at the NCA doing under the watchful eyes of Director Rahul Dravid and head physio Ashish Kaushik On Wednesday, ESPNCricinfo on their Twitter handle, posted a minute-long clip of the 32-year-old, who was seen bowling from his full run-up.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in a recent interview with PTI had said that they are expecting Ishant to get fit before the first Test in Adelaide.

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Talking about the same, Ganguly said, “Yes, we are expecting Ishant to be back for the Test matches. He has already started bowling from shorter run-ups and short spells. He has bowled at NCA. But as there is a BCCI protocol for fast bowlers, Ishant will be playing the two first-class games in Australia.”