Batsman Rohit Sharma joined the Indian team in Melbourne before the third test match in Sydney. Spirits are already high in the dressing room and the vibes only improved when Rohit met up with his teammates at the hotel. A video posted by BCCI on Twitter shows the Mumbai cricketer hugging his colleagues. One of the first cricketers to receive him was off-roader Ravindra Jadeja, then Rohit hugged batsman Wriddhiman Saha, the goalkeeper.
India, which scored the lowest on the test in Adelaide, was in dire straits as they faced Australia in the second test at MCG. Also, regular skipper Virat Kohli and gunman Mohammad Shami were unavailable for the game and things look tough last week. But Ajinkya Rahane and his team turned the table around in Australia when they beat them by eight wickets. The next test match begins on January 7 in Sydney and Rohit is ready to play.
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Meanwhile, coach Ravi Shastri told the media on Tuesday that team management will talk to Rohit about how he feels before taking a call about his availability. “Rohit joins the team tomorrow. We will have a chat with him to see where he is physically located because he has been in quarantine for a couple of weeks. We will have to see how he feels now before taking the call,” Shastri said. The starting right-hander, who led the Mumbai Indians to their fifth IPL T20 title in December, suffered a hamstring injury during the T20 tournament. However, he still played in IPL Qualifier 1 and the final and then had to undergo treatment at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
Rohit’s inability to fly with the India team generated controversy, as skipper Virat Kohli on his arrival in Australia said that the team’s management has not been informed of his progress. Kohli had said that he would have liked him to be with the team and recover in Australia just like Wriddhiman Saha. Rohit flew to Australia in mid-December, days before the start of the test series. While he was in quarantine in Sydney, he hasn’t had any practice and could be rusty so probably Shastri said the team will consider how he feels.
