Former India captain and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Saturday said there’s no point of Rohit Sharma giving the first Test against Australia a miss after the latter became father for the second time. The 37-year-old Rohit who didn’t travel with the Indian team to Australia last month, stayed back in India to be by his wife Ritika Sajdeh’s side as she gave birth to a baby boy on Friday night.
The couple have a daughter Samaira, born in 2018. With the first Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy beginning on November 22, Ganguly said there is still a week’s time for Rohit to fly out to Australia.
“I hope Rohit Sharma goes very soon because the team needs leadership,” Ganguly told RevSportz. “I believe he has welcomed a baby boy last night. So, I am sure he can leave. He can leave as early as possible. If I were in his position, he should be playing the first Test.
“It’s still on the 22nd. It’s a week away. And because it’s a big series. He will not go to Australia after this. He is a fantastic captain. India needs his leadership to start with,” added the former BCCI chief.
With less than a week left for the first Test, it is not clear if Rohit, after just a couple of practice sessions, will play the match even if he decides to travelto Australia atthe earliest, but nothing can be ruled out as of now. There were doubts about Rohit’s participation in the first Test although head coach Gautam Gambhir was quite hopeful that the captain might just be available.
The Indian team currently needs their skipper and opening batter as the top order is looking way too brittle. While Rohit hasn’t exactly been in the best of form but he would still any day be better than Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has looked out of depth against bounce and seam movement, while KL Rahul has sustained an elbow injury which is, though, believed to be not so serious in nature.
Shubman Gill adds to India’s injury woes
But, both Easwaran and Rahul have not done enough to become Yashasvi Jaiswal’s partner for the lung opener. To make matters worse, Shubman Gill suffered a finger injury on Saturday, adding more woes for Rohit and his team.
According to a PTI report, Gill has fractured his thumb while fielding at the slips during the match simulation against India A. The BCCI medical team will monitor Gill for the next three days before coming into a conclusion.
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