Healing Touch: Rohit Sharma

India’s white-ball vice-captain Rohit, in a conversation with PTI, opened up about the left hamstring injury he suffered during IPL, which became a matter of intense speculation after he returned to action within days of being left out of the Australia tour earlier this month. He was subsequently added to the Test squad.

“I don’t know what was going on and what people were talking about. I was constantly communicating with the BCCI and Mumbai Indians (MI),” said Rohit. The 33-year-old hit a match-winning 68 runs off 50 balls in the IPL final against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Dubai, playing through pain.

Rohit is doing strength and conditioning work at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru before heading to Australia. “I told MI that I can take the field since it is the shortest format. Once I made my mind clear, it was all about focussing on what I needed to do,” he said. “Hamstring is feeling absolutely fine. I just started the process of getting it nice and strong. Before I play the longer format, I needed to be clear in mind that there is no stone left unturned. That is probably the reason I am at the NCA,” he added.

For Rohit, the chatter on the outside regarding his injury and subsequent participation in the IPL play-offs didn’t matter much. “It was not a concern what x, y or z was talking about whether I would make it to Australia. Once the injury happened, I tried to figure out what to do in the next 10 days and whether I would be able to play.”

Unless one goes to the ground, one won’t know how the body is shaping up, opined the five-time IPL champion captain. “But every day, the degree of the injury was changing. The way it was responding was changing, so I was feeling quite confident that I could play.

“I told the franchise that I will be okay to play just before the play-offs. I also told it that if there is any discomfort, I won’t be playing the play-offs.” All Rohit needed was three-and-a-half weeks to get ready for Tests and he can’t understand what the fuss was all about given that the series starts only on December 17.

“Of course, there is still some work that needs to be done. That is why I didn’t go to Australia for the white ball leg. There are around six games in 11 days,” he said about the limited overs leg beginning November 27. “I thought that if I get to work on my body for 25 days, I can probably go and play the Test matches. It was an easy decision for me and I don’t know why it became so complicated for others,” he wondered.