Rahul Dravid – I’m not sure, it’s too soon to say whether Rohit will be fit for the Tests or not
Indian captain Rohit Sharma will travel to Mumbai to counsel a specialist after injuring his thumb in the second ODI against Bangladesh, head coach Rahul Dravid has said while Rohit’s flight to India for medical consultation has put in doubt his participation in the two Test matches.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma will travel to Mumbai to counsel a specialist after injuring his thumb in the second ODI against Bangladesh, head coach Rahul Dravid has said.
Rohit left the field as soon as the second over in the wake of harming his thumb and didn’t return to the field during the Bangladesh innings. The 35-year-old didn’t come out to open the innings as well, with Virat Kohli replacing him as Shikhar Dhawan’s partner at the top.
However, Rohit’s flight to India for medical consultation has put in doubt his participation in the two Test matches.
“Rohit will certainly miss the next game, fly back to Bombay, consult with an expert and see how it is and whether he can come back for the Test matches or not,”
Dravid said.
“I’m not sure. It’s too soon to say whether (he’ll be fit for the Tests or not).
“I think for him to show that level of courage, he had a serious dislocation, he had to go to the hospital to get that set right, stitches in his hand, a couple of injections to go out and bat,”
Dravid further added on Rohit’s unbeaten 51 that came off just 28 balls batting at No.9.
“Credit to him, he was determined to go out and have a go and take a chance and it’s amazing how close he got us with that innings, it was a phenomenal inning by the skipper. Great courage to be able to go out there and give us a chance. Unfortunately, in the end, we couldn’t get over the line.”
While also affirming that Kuldeep Sen and Deepak Chahar are out of dispute to play the final ODI with injuries, Dravid ignored concerns surrounding India’s form in ODI cricket following back-to-back series defeats.
“It’s a really exciting format,”
“As you saw in these games it’s a terrific format to play. When there’s a lot of cricket, you have to prioritize certain formats. For the last couple of years, we’ve certainly prioritized the T20 format with two World Cups so a lot of our boys haven’t played a lot of one-day cricket. Over the next 8-9 months we will be prioritizing one-day cricket a lot and hopefully, we will get our full squad to be able to play from the home series in January.
“It’s not easy juggling between the three formats but that’s the way it is, that’s the way we plan. We knew that we’d not be able to play our full squads either in NZ or here because of how tight they were and close they were, especially after coming back from a hectic 3-4 months of cricket. But hopefully, now the white-ball boys will get a little bit of a break while the Test players play the Test matches and we’re hoping that once we get to India, we have nine matches in India before the IPL, so god willing we don’t have too many injuries and we can play a settled squad in those nine games.”
Despite the erratic form, Dravid managed to find some positives and heaped praise on allrounder Washington Sundar.
“Again he (Washington) is someone who had a lot of injuries last year,”
Dravid noted.
“It’s nice to see the way he’s coming back, he’s bowled well in both the games and he batted well in New Zealand as well. Here because we wanted to lengthen our batting a little bit and keep that left-right combination going, we promoted Washington. We think that he’s a very capable batsman and he can bat well.
“I think even in this series just to see the way Umran came in and bowled today (was pleasing). Unfortunately for Kuldeep, he played one game and got injured. He’s someone really exciting. There are some good positives despite losing the series, two close games in 2-0, we had our opportunities but there are some positives we can take from this series as well. Rahul’s batting in the last game, Shreyas’ batting in this game, some of the bowling… I thought Siraj was exceptional in the last game. Shardul has bowled particularly well in both the games and Washington as well, as Axar’s batting today. So there have been bits and pieces there we can take heart from. Of course, we’re disappointed with the result but there are some positives as we build into the next World Cup and there are a lot of matches to go. So nothing to be disheartened about, things to learn from and hopefully move forward.”