Rohit Sharma Suffers Injury Scare Ahead Of Opening ODI Against Australia

Team India’s vice-captain Rohit Sharma suffered an injury scare ahead of the opening ODI of the series against Australia. As per a report in Sportstar, he was hit on his thumb by a throwdown from batting coach Vikram Rarhour. Although he returned to nets and continued with the net session.

Also Read: ‘Good Dilemma To Have’: Batting Coach Vikram Rathour On The Opening Combination

As for now, there is no official update from BCCI but the physios would surely want to have a look at Rohit’s thumb before the start of the series. Apart from Rohit, five other cricketers took part in the optional net session two days ahead of the first ODI of the series.

Rohit, who was rested for the three T20Is against Sri Lanka, is all set to open the innings with one of Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul. Looking at the present scenario, Dhawan holds an edge over Rahul at least in the 50-over format.

Despite other openers making their way into the team, the team management has resisted with the tried and tested opening pair of Rohit and Dhawan and they seem to have no plan to change the opening combination in this format. However, Rahul does hold an edge over Dhawan when it comes to T20I cricket.

Also Read: Ricky Ponting All Praise For Rohit Sharma, The Captain

The first ODI will also be a comeback game for Dhawan in this format as it will be after a long period of five months that he will play his first 50-over international game. He was to make a comeback in this format during the home series against West Indies but a thigh issue kept him out of the complete series.

While India have a settled line-up, Australia have some challenges when it comes to picking playing XI. It will be interesting to see if the visitors hand a debut cap to Marnus Labuschagne. Also, Australia had opted to replace pacer Sean Abbott with batsman D’Arcy Short. Hence, they will have to play all the three pacers in the complete series.

The first ODI of the series takes place at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on January 14. After the first ODI, both the teams will travel to Rajkot for the second ODI to be played on January 17. The third and the final ODI will be played in Bengaluru on January 19.