Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma to Miss First Two Tests Against the Aussies

Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma have been ruled out of the first two tests that India will play against Australia in December with both the players recovering from injuries. Even though Ishant Sharma has been training hard close to a month at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore and regained bowling fitness, he cannot be considered match fit to play test cricket. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma, who took Mumbai Indians to their 5th IPL title, suffered a hamstring tear while playing in the IPL is clearly not match fit to appear in the test matches, and more so captain the team in the absence of Virat Kohli.

Even if both the players are declared fit to play in the third test, their chances of making it to the final 11 for that test looks grim as they will be quarantined for 14 days on reaching Australia. With such a scenario, selectors will have to keep an eye on performance of ODI and T20 batsmen to find a suitable replacements for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

Ishant’s absence might not be felt much, with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav in the team. However, as back up, selectors have zeroed in on Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi and Ishan Porel, who are part of the Indian contingent to Australia.