New Delhi
\nThe hullabaloo over his hamstring was confusing as well as amusing for Rohit Sharma, who says he always knew that the injury was not that serious and he would be battle-ready for the tour of Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s white-ball vice-captain, in a detailed conversation with PTI, opened about the left hamstring injury during the 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what was going on, to be honest and what all were people talking about. But let me put this on record, I was constantly communicating with BCCI and Mumbai Indians,\u201d Rohit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He hit a match-winning knock of 68 off 50 balls in the IPL final against Delhi Capitals, playing through pain. Rohit is currently doing strength and conditioning work at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru before heading to Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI told them (Mumbai Indians) that I can take the field since it is the shortest format and I will be able to manage the situation quite nicely. Once I made my mind clear, it was all about focussing on what I needed to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHamstring is feeling absolutely fine. Just started the process of getting it nice and strong. Before I play the longer format, I absolutely needed to be clear in mind that there is no stone that is left unturned, that\u2019s probably the reason, I\u2019m at the NCA,\u201d Rohit added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo for me, it was not a concern what x, y or z was talking about like whether he would make it to Australia,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cOnce the injury happened, the next two days all I did was to figure out what I can do in the next 10 days whether I will be able to play or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut every day, hamstring was changing. The way it was responding was changing, so I was feeling quite confident that I could play and that is the communication that I had with MI at that point. I told them that I think I will be okay to play just before play-offs. If there is any discomfort, I won\u2019t be playing the play-offs,\u201d Rohit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All Rohit needed was three-and-a-half weeks to get ready for Tests and he fails to understand what the fuss was all about given that the series starts December 17.\u201cOf course, there is still some work that needs to be done on my hamstring. That\u2019s why I didn\u2019t go to Australia for the white-ball leg as there are back-to-back games. Around 6 games in 11 days,\u201d he said about the limited overs leg beginning November 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I thought if I get to work on my body for 25 days, I can probably go and play the Test matches. So it was an easy decision for me and I don\u2019t know why it became so complicated for others,\u201d he wondered aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLot of people, I hear say that can he do it with other teams? Firstly, why shall I need to do it with other teams? There is a certain way this franchise wants to go and same direction I want to go as well, both as a player and leader,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDid this team become good overnight? No. It\u2019s just that this franchise doesn\u2019t believe in chopping and changing. And every player, including Rohit Sharma, was available at auctions. Just that MI picked and believed in building a team,\u201d Rohit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was extremely proud of MI getting New Zealand pacer Trent Boult on board, which worked wonders for them. Boult was released by Delhi Capitals before the players auction, a decision that they would probably regret given how effective he was this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTrent Boult was with Delhi last year and before that with Sunrisers. We needed someone to provide wickets upfront and who could swing the ball,\u201d Rohit said, adding: \u201cWe strongly pursued him and got him from Capitals, something I am proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a tough year on all counts but Rohit said the franchise provided an environment that created memories of a lifetime while being locked in a bio-bubble due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMI, in a year, where everything was uncertain, created a happy space for us. 80 days in a bio-bubble never felt claustrophobic. Every little aspect was taken care of and the preparation started in June in a bio-secure environment with all net bowlers and Indian players,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi The hullabaloo over his hamstring was confusing as well as amusing for Rohit Sharma, who says he always knew that the injury was not that serious and he would be battle-ready for the tour of Australia. India\u2019s white-ball vice-captain, in a detailed conversation with PTI, opened about the left hamstring injury during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84304,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84302\/revisions\/84304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}