After having recovered from a “frustrating” two-month injury layoff, Rohit Sharma is “excited” to be able to return to competitive cricket. Rohit will mark his comeback to top-flight cricket for India A against the visiting Sri Lankans in the tour game at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday. He said that he has started understanding his game better during the break.”Mentally it’s very frustrating. What can you do. When you play well and get injured for the rest of the series and miss so many games, is quite frustrating,” Rohit told ESPNcricinfo after having a long stint in the nets on Wednesday. “I am excited to be back and I will be playing tomorrow.”When Rohit was sidelined with a finger injury while fielding in the first ODI in England, he was expected to be fit in four weeks. He was also diagnosed with a shoulder strain, from which he has recovered pretty quickly. But the fractured finger took longer than expected to heal, which meant Rohit missed the ODIs against West Indies and West Zone’s Duleep Trophy campaign as well.
Injured Bumrah set to miss warm-up
A knee injury is set to sideline Jasprit Bumrah from India A’s match against the touring Sri Lankans, to be played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
According to India A coach Sanjay Bangar, the fast bowler felt the discomfort in his left knee during West Zone’s Duleep Trophy quarter-final against East Zone last week. After being examined with the physio, Bumrah was asked to get an MRI scan done. Thought the results of the tests are awaited, Bumrah is unlikely to be considered for the tour game.
Bumrah bowled a brief spell with a shorter run-up during India A’s training on Wednesday morning. It remains to be seen if the Gujarat bowler recovers in time for the West Zone one-dayers, which start on November 8.
“Doctors had told me it will take four to six weeks. It’s not their fault. They tried everything they could but my body’s healing process is not that great, so what can I do. Everyone’s body type is different. I am just excited to be back on the field.”Rohit’s injured finger is still strapped and India A coach Sanjay Bangar said his fielding “will have to be monitored” over the next week. Rohit said he started feeling better with every hit in the nets he had since resuming batting “ten days ago”. While he wasn’t satisfied with his batting initially, Rohit said a three-hour session at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s facility at Bandra-Kurla Complex on Tuesday helped him find his touch.”For the past few days I wasn’t feeling comfortable about my batting. There were a few things happening with my batting and wanted to get that feeling back of how I used to bat before the injury. It is not the same when you comeback after an injury. I am more or less very comfortable now after a real long session at BKC yesterday. When I play tomorrow, I will be able to analyse it properly.”Rohit admitted that the last year, with three overseas tours and very little cricket in India, hadn’t been great for him as well as for the Indian team. “We did not do that well outside India. But see, as a unit – it’s a young unit – I think a little more time is required for the team. I am not talking about any individual. I am talking about the whole team. When you consider the whole team’s performance, it’s important to give a little more time, a little more exposure,” Rohit said.”I understand whenever we go out and play [badly], people start talking about [poor record on] abroad tours, how we’re going to play. I understand that it’s your point of view but it was important for us to go and learn how to play outside India and the kind of mindset you need. It was a good learning experience for all of us. A couple of times we came quite close to winning a Test match. In England, we won a Test match [at Lord’s] but then lost our way.”This was Rohit’s third major injury layoff in less than five years. He was exasperated with the flurry of freak injuries. “I won’t say I am trapped, but I am very unfortunate that I have got injured at crucial period of my career. I have missed out on a lot of games after getting injured,” Rohit said.”South Africa Test match in India (in 2010), I got injured on the morning of the match and then I had to wait for four years to make my Test debut. Again in England in 2011, my finger got injured in the first one-day and missed nine one-days thereafter. Now also, it is almost nine ODIs now – three in England, three against West Indies and three against Sri Lanka now. It’s very frustrating when you have a season like that and then you miss games due to injuries.”Rohit had missed out on the 2011 World Cup by a whisker, with the selectors preferring to go for an additional bowler in the squad instead of a batsman. And the batsman said the thought of missing out on another World Cup crossed his mind when his recovery period was extended.”When I got injured, I didn’t know how long it’s going to take,” he said. “When injuries happen, you don’t know how long it is going to take. With the World Cup being so far away I wasn’t thinking about the World Cup then. But that thing of missing the World Cup will always be there because I missed the 2011 World Cup and I don’t want to miss out on this World Cup anyhow.”
