AUS vs IND: Rohit Sharma clears fitness test at NCA, to leave for Australia on Dec 14

Indian opener Rohit Sharma has passed the fitness test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru on Friday. He will leave for Australia on December 14, three days before the start of the marquee Test series against Australia.

Rohit's fitness test took place under the supervision of NCA director Rahul Dravid, who is entrusted with the responsibility of giving him his fitness certificate.

As per the Australian government's rules, the star batsman will have to undergo a mandatory 14 days of hard quarantine before being able to train for the last two Tests in Sydney (Jan 7 to 11) and Brisbane (Jan 15 to 19).

He is flying straight to Sydney and will get a week's training there.

"Rohit has cleared the fitness Test and will soon be flying out to Australia," a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

Earlier, the BCCI updated the Test squad for the tour of Australia to add Rohit Sharma in the side, after initially leaving him out of the tour due to fitness concerns.

"The BCCI Medical Team has been monitoring Rohit Sharma's fitness and has briefed All-India Senior Selection Committee on the same. In consultation with Sharma, it has been decided to rest him for the ODIs and T20Is in Australia to regain full fitness and he has been included in India's Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy," a BCCI



statement read.

Rohit Sharma faced a hamstring injury during the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League. While the batsman returned to action in the tournament and eventually led his side Mumbai Indians to a record fifth IPL title, his exclusion from the limited-overs series in Australia raised certain eyebrows.

While the Team India players traveled to the Australia from the United Arab Emirates (venue for IPL 2020), Rohit returned to India and eventually reached NCA in the third week of November to complete his rehabilitation.

Indian captain Virat Kohli also broke silence on the situation surrounding Rohit Sharma ahead of the side's ODI series against Australia. He revealed that there was no communication on the reason behind Rohit not traveling to Australia.

"Well, before we had the selection meeting in Dubai, we got a mail two days before which said that Rohit is unavailable for selection because of the injury he picked up during the IPL. It mentioned a two-week rest and rehab period, and it said that the pros and cons of the injury were explained to Rohit and he understood that," Kohli had said.

"It was the information we got by mail but after that, he played in the IPL. We all thought that he would be on the flight to Australia which he wasn't and we had no information whatsoever on the reason behind him not flying to Australia."