Rohit Sharma was seen resting his left knee with an ice pack after being hit on the flap of his left pad during a throwdown session at the nets in the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. The veteran batsman walked off gingerly and did not continue batting after the incident, spending about 30 minutes seated, resting his knee while conversing with team analyst Hari. Rohit was also observed limping slightly as he made his way to the dressing room as he had a word with bowling coach Morne Morkel and the set of batters at the nets.
Sources within the team have confirmed that Rohit experienced a swollen knee following the hit during the practice session, and the BCCI medical team will monitor his condition in the days leading up to the eagerly anticipated Boxing Day Test. Although Rohit would have wished to bat longer, he initially faced bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna before switching to face spinners Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Devdutt Padikkal, until his session was prematurely ended due to the injury concern.
While the injury is not expected to be severe enough to jeopardise Rohit’s participation in the fourth of the five-Test series, it remains a concern for both the team and the captain. Subsequent icing will be applied to Rohit’s knee to reduce the swelling, and one of the coaching staff was even seen photographing Rohit’s swollen knee.
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Meanwhile, Bumrah, who was rested on Saturday, returned to the nets, bowling with vigour to players such as Rohit, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, and KL Rahul. Bumrah bowled with full intensity and appeared in high spirits, challenging the Indian batters. However, there’s a slight dissatisfaction among the Indian team regarding the practice pitches provided for training ahead of the Boxing Day Test.
These pitches, all four of them, lack much grass and have a brownish hue, more suited to white-ball cricket according to Akash Deep in a press conference. The variable bounce from these pitches led to blows to both Akash and Rohit while batting. With some practice pitches under covers, reserved for the Australian team, it will be interesting to see if those pitches resemble the same as given to the Indian team.
“The practice pitch is probably meant for white-ball cricket; the ball kept low at times. As for these minor injuries, these things happen at training, and there are no major concerns because of that. I am fine,” Akash stated.
The Indian team will take a rest day on Monday before resuming their practice on Tuesday, aiming to secure a 2-1 lead in the series in Melbourne.
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