Indian captain Rohit Sharma will fly back to Mumbai in order to consult an expert after sustaining an injury on his thumb in the second ODI against Bangladesh yesterday, head coach Rahul Dravid has confirmed. However, he left the field in the second over itself after getting an injury in his thumb and didn’t return to the field during the Bangladesh innings as well. He didn’t even open the innings as well, as Virat Kohli opened alongside Shikhar Dhawan.
On the other hand, Rohit went to a hospital and the subsequent X-ray reports confirmed no fracture too, but he opined on his injury at the post-match presentation. Rohit, with stitches on his thumb, came out to bat towards the end of the Indian innings and almost won the game as well. Meanwhile, Rohit’s departure to India for medical consultation has put a question mark on his participation in the upcoming two Test matches as well.
“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,” Rahul Dravid said. “I’m not sure. It’s too soon to say that (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 hospital to get that set right, stitches in his hand, a couple of injections to go out and bat.”
Rahul Dravid further opened up on Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten 51 that came off just 28 balls while batting at No.9 which almost sealed the deal for the visitors.
“Credit to him, he was really 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 an absolutely phenomenal innings 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.”
“It’s not easy juggling between the three formats” – Rahul Dravid
While talking about Kuldeep Sen and Deepak Chahar won’t be playing in the final ODI with injuries, the head coach has also shared his concerns over India’s form in ODI cricket following consecutive series defeats.
“It’s a really exciting format,” he said. “As you saw in these games it’s a terrific format to play. When there’s a lot of cricket, you have to prioritise 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 really 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,” Rahul Dravid stated.
Despite the poor form, Rahul Dravid shared some positives and heaped praise on allrounder Washington Sundar as well. He did quite well with both the bat and the ball.
“Again he (Washington) is someone who has had a lot of injuries last year. It’s really 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 really well,” he explained.
“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’s some good positives in spite of losing the series, two close games in 2-0, we had our opportunities but there’s 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, 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,” Rahul Dravid concluded.
Get the latest cricket news here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more such updates.