Mumbai: Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar has upraised a question regarding the date of Indian opener Rohit Sharma’s fitness test conducted at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru earlier this week.
Rohit, who suffered a hamstring injury during the 13th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), cleared the test on December 11 which permitted him to be part of the Test series in Australia from January 7-11 , 2021 third Test at Sydney Cricket Ground.
“Not having two crucial players (Virat Kohli is not available after the opening Test at Adelaide Test) is a huge blow to the visitors. Sharma has now been declared fit which means he will be available for the last two Test matches,” the Little Master said.
“Why his fitness test wasn’t done a couple of days earlier is something we don’t know but if that had happened then he could well have been available for the second Test match too,” he further added.
“What was so sacred about December 11th that could not be done on December 8th is something that’s not out in the public domain. It’s hard to imagine that the muscle on 8th December was not ready but was so three days later,” he added.
“Looking at the struggles of the Indian openers in the two warm-up games against the Australia A, albeit on pitches that had bounce does stress the importance of having someone of the class of Rohit Sharma at the start to open the innings and put pressure back on the bowlers,” Gavaskar wrote in mid-day on Sunday (December 13).
The second Test will be held in Melbourne Cricket Ground (December 26-30), the traditional Boxing Day cricket battle while Brisbane hosts the fourth Test from January 15. Since 1947-48, India have won only one Test series in Australia. The triumph came in 2018-19 when Kohli’s team won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 through success in Adelaide and Melbourne.
