Indian cricket fans heaved a sigh of relief as Rohit Sharma returned to action for the final game of IPL 2020, against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Sharjah on Tuesday.
Rohit missed the last four games for Mumbai Indians owing to a hamstring pull, a seriousness of which was revealed after BCCI opted to drop him from all the three squads for the tour of Australia which begins from November 27. In his absence, Kieron Pollard led the defending champions when the team won three and lost one.
Earlier in the day, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that Rohit's fitness is still being assessed by the franchise and Team India's physios, which hinted that Rohit might miss the SRH game as well. But he walked out for the toss, which he lost to David Warner.
When asked about the injury status, Rohit quickly replied saying,
"Looks like I'm fit and fine."
Ganguly had said before the match that the board will do everything possible to get Rohit on board for the Australia tour.
"Rohit is injured at the moment. Otherwise, why would we leave out a player like him. He is the vice-captain of the national (limited-overs) team," Ganguly told PTI in an exclusive interview.
"We will have to assess him. I don't know (when he can come back). He hasn't played so far since the time he has got injured. We want him to recover. It's the BCCI's job to get their best players on the park. If he recovers, he plays," said the former captain.
Talking about the game, SRH opted to bowl first in Sharjah. Rohit returned to his opening role, but managed to score only four runs before falling to Sandeep Sharma in the third over of the game.