India’s star cricketer Rohit Sharma has been declared fit by the physios at National Cricket Academy on Friday and he will fly to Australia on December 14, PTI reported.
“Rohit has cleared the fitness Test and will soon be flying out to Australia,” a senior BCCI official told PTI.
Rohit’s fitness test took place under the supervision of NCA director Rahul Dravid, who is entrusted with the responsibility of giving him his fitness certificate. He is now expected to fly out in the next couple of days and will have to undergo 14 days of hard quarantine (no training allowed) before being able to train for the last two Tests in Sydney (January 7 to 11) and Brisbane (January 15 to 19).
The Test series starts in Adelaide on December 17.
Update: On Saturday, the BCCI confirmed Rohit has cleared fitness test.
Rohit had sustained a hamstring injury during the IPL, which led to him missing the white-ball leg of the ongoing tour. He is also out of reckoning for the first two Tests but can now be there for the last two games, added the PTI report.
Rohit’s injury and rehab had become a source of much discussion in the past few weeks. Kohli, speaking ahead of the ODI series in Australia, had said that the situation was not ideal for the team, and that Rohit (along with Ishant Sharma) would have been better off being with the squad in Australia to undergo their respective rehabs.
Confirming that Rohit had been undergoing rehab at NCA, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had said on November 26, that an assessment will be conducted on December 11th “following which the BCCI will have clarity on his participation in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.”
BCCI press release back then had stated that Rohit had to come back to Mumbai after the IPL to attend his ailing father. “His father is now recuperating well and that has allowed him to travel to the NCA and start his rehabilitation,” the Board had said.
There’s been drama ever since he injured his left hamstring during a league match while playing for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. The injury, which forced him out of four IPL games, prompted the national selectors to not consider him for the Australian tour. Omitted from the squad for the much-anticipated tour, he soon returned to lead his franchise in the business end of IPL where he led his franchise to their fifth title.
On November 9, the BCCI provided an update on his status, saying the selectors had kept Rohit out of only the limited-overs leg for him to “regain full fitness” for the Test series.
