BCCI had announced India’s Test, ODI and T20I squad to face Australia later this year. Many new faces were added into the squads, there were also many noteworthy omissions. The biggest being that of India’s limited overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma’s name wasn’t added in the Indian squad. The statement put out by the BCCI alongside the announcement of squads read – “The BCCI Medical Team will continue to monitor the progress of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma.” On October 23, when Kieron Pollard acted as a stand-in captain for their encounter, Mumbai Indians put out a statement that said: “Rohit Sharma has suffered left leg hamstring strain during Mumbai Indians’ last outing. Rohit has made good progress over last four days, while the management is taking one day at a time monitoring the recovery process in consultancy with BCCI. Rohit has been advised rest for the match against CSK. Kieron Pollard will lead the team tonight.”
However Rohit went on to miss their next encounter against Rajasthan Royals on October 25, a day before the Indian selection committee picked the squads. Sunil Gavaskar, former Indian opener and arguably one of India’s greatest player of all time has demanded a detailed reason for Rohit’s absence from the Indian squad. “I don’t know, I’m not on any of these public media but I was shown something about him practicing at the nets for Mumbai Indians. So I don’t know what kind of injury it is. Because if the injury was serious he wouldn’t even be padded up. So we’re talking about a tour that starts at the end of November for T20s and one-dayers but the Test matches start around 17th of December which is a month and a half away. And if he’s practicing in the nets for Mumbai Indians then honestly don’t know what kind of injury it is.
“And I think a little bit of transparency, a little bit of openness about what actually is the problem with him will help everybody. Because the Indian cricket fan deserves to know more than anything else. The franchises I understand, they don’t want to give their hand away because they’re trying to win the game, they don’t want to give the opposition any psychological advantage” Gavaskar had said this live on Star Sports. He felt that Indian cricket fans deserved to know the truth regarding Rohit Sharma’ omission.