Indian cricket fans were in for a big surprise

Indian cricket fan deserves to know’: Gavaskar on Rohit’s absence from Team India squads for Australia

Indian cricket fans were in for a big surprise when BCCI announced the squads for Team India’s upcoming tour of Australia on Monday. Limited overs vice-captain and Test opener Rohit Sharma’s name was missing from squads of all three formats. Rohit has missed Mumbai Indians’ last two matches due to a niggle and it seems the decision to not name him in the squads was related to him being injured. “The BCCI Medical Team will continue to monitor the progress of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma,” the last line of BCCI’s official release read.

What made the entire situation perplexing was Mumbai Indians posting two tweets, which showed Rohit Sharma batting in the nets. In the video posted a little while after the teams were announced, Rohit can be seen going full tilt in the nets while batting.

This led former India captain and veteran commentator Sunil Gavaskar asking for some clarity on the entire issue. Gavaskar was speaking during the post match show of the IPL encounter between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders on host broadcaster Star Sports.

“We are talking about the Test matches, which are a month and a half way,” Gavaskar said.

“And if he is practising in the nets for Mumbai Indians, then honestly I don’t know what kind of injury it is. I think a little bit of transparency, a little bit of openness about what actually is the problem with him will help everybody,” he added.

Gavaskar referred to KXIP opener Mayank Agarwal, who too has been sidelined for his franchise’s last two matches but has been named in the squads for all three formats.

“The Indian cricket fan deserves to know, more than anything else. The franchisees, I understand. They don’t want to give their hand away. They don’t want to give the oppositions any psychological advantage. But we are talking about the Indian team here. Even Mayank Agarwal for example. For an Indian cricket fan, they ought to know what happens to two of their key players,” Gavaskar said.

Rohit Sharma made a stunning comeback to Test cricket in 2019 as he opened the innings in home series against South Africa and Bangladesh. He was expected to face a stiff test in New Zealand but had to miss the series due to an injury. India were beaten 2-0 by the Kiwis. The tour against Australia is a highly anticipated one and everyone wanted to see how Rohit would fare when he opens the batting outside India in red ball cricket.

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 India’s T20I, ODI and Test squads for Tour of Australia announced

The All-India Senior Selection Committee met via video-conference on Monday to select the Indian Cricket Team for the upcoming Tour of Australia. Team India will take part in three T20Is, three ODIs and four Test matches against Australia.

Team India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

Team India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur

Team India Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj

Four additional bowlers - Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T. Natarajan - will travel with the Indian contingent.