Virat Kohli did not mince his words and was quite candid in stating that there had been no clarity provided to the Indian team on the injuries of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma, both of whom are undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
The Indian skipper went onto say that had Rohit and Ishant Sharma been undergoing rehabilitation with the squad in Australia, it would have surely bolstered their chances of featuring in the Border Gavaskar Test series.
KOHLI FEELS ROHIT AND ISHANT'S CHANCES OF PLAYING TEST SERIES IN AUSTRALIA COULD HAVE BEEN BOLSTERED IF THE DUO UNDERWENT REHABILIATION PROCESS 'DOWN UNDER'
"It would have definitely increased their chances of playing matches here. Someone like Saha is here, doing his rehab...we are aware of his progress and we are on the right path to make sure that he is fit and available in time to play the Test series," he said in a virtual press conference in Sydney, where the first ODI will be played on Friday.
KOHLI SUBSTATIATES 'LACK OF COMMUNICATION' OVER ROHIT'S INJURY PROGRESS BY NARRATING SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
Kohli substantiated his point on lack of communication by the board on Rohit Sharma's injury by narrating the sequence of events and claimed that he was not kept informed about the rehabilitation progress of frontline batsman.
"After that, he played the IPL so we all thought he will be on that flight to Australia which he wasn't on...we had no information on the reason why he is not travelling with us and after that the only other information we received on mail is that he is in the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and he has been assessed." Kohli further stressed on the lack of "uncertainty and lack of clarity" on the issue.
"The only other information was that he will be assessed further on December 11, there has been information from the time of selection meeting to IPL finishing and the email coming on December 11, to now. There has been no information, there has been lack of clarity, we have been playing waiting game on this issue for a while now which is not ideal at all, so it has been very confusing there has been lot of uncertainty and lack of clarity on the situations," he said.
LATEST UPDATE by BCCI ON ROHIT SHARMA'S INJURY STATUS
Rohit Sharma is currently at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru undergoing rehabilitation for his hamstring injury sustained in the thirteenth season of the IPL at UAE.
The apex cricket board (BCCI) said that it will have a much more clarity on Rohit Sharma's participation in the upcoming Test series against Australia based on his next assessment which will be conducted on December 11. The BCCI had earlier confirmed that both Rohit and Ishant have been ruled out of the first two Test matches.
IND vs AUS: Massive Blow For Team India As Seamer Ishant Sharma Ruled Out Of 4-Match Test Series
ROHIT SHARMA WAS INITIALLY NOT NAMED IN ANY OF THE 3 SQUADS FOR AUSTRALIA SERIES, LATER ON ADDED TO THE TEST SQUAD
Rohit Sharma was not initially named in any of the three squads for the Australia tour due to the hamstring injury he sustained in the IPL. However, he was later included in the Test squad after he returned to action for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2020.
If one were to go by recent reports, BCCI did not ask Rohit Sharma to return to India. Meanwhile, some other reports indicated that the prolific right handed opener flew back to his hometown Mumbai because his father was suffering from COVID-19
ISHANT SHARMA RULED OUT OF 4-MATCH TEST SERIES AGAINST AUSTRALIA
BCCI had issued a statement earlier in the day stating that Seamer Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the 4-match Test series against Australia