Rohit Sharma rested for India A unofficial Test: India’s vice-captain has been given some respite from complex scheduling plans.
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Rohit Sharma, India’s vice-captain and opening batsman in the limited-over formats, has been given a significant amount of respite from complex scheduling plans after him being rested for the India A’s first unofficial Test against New Zealand A.
It is worth mentioning that the India A team had already reached New Zealand. Since Sharma was captaining India in T20Is against Windies at home, he was scheduled to leave after the third T20I.
The first unofficial Test will be played from November 16-19. Had Sharma played that match, he would have to take the flight to Australia on the next day (November 20) to reach Brisbane to play the first T20I of India’s tour of Australia at Brisbane.
While all of this wasn’t impossible, doing it would have made little sense for it had fair chances of exhausting Sharma, who is a vital player for India’s limited-overs squad, chiefly ahead of the tour of Australia.
An official statement from the BCCI said that the decision of resting Sharma was taken after consulting BCCI’s medical team. “Rohit Sharma has been advised rest by the BCCI Medical Team in consultation with the team management and the All-India Senior Selection Committee. The decision was taken keeping in mind his recent workload,” said the BCCI in a statement.
Most recently, former India spearhead Zaheer Khan had hinted at Sharma missing the first T20I if he plays the unofficial Test in New Zealand. Sharma will now travel with the Indian team to Australia for a two-month long tour.
India A squad for 1st four-day game against New Zealand A:
Ajinkya Rahane (c), M Vijay, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Parthiv Patel (wk), K Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wk).
Read some of the latest Twitter reactions on Sharma below:
