Rohit Sharma came out at the toss instead of Virat Kohli for India‘s second warm-up match on Wednesday against Australia at the ICC Academy Ground, Dubai. Sharma revealed that Virat Kohli has been rested for the fixture after Sharma was rested for the first warm-up game against England a couple of days ago.
Alongside Virat Kohli, pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are also rested after all three of them featured against England. Virat Kohli had a disappointing outing, scoring 11 runs off 13 balls in the chase of 189.
Bumrah, on the other hand, was again tight with the ball, returning with figures of 1/26 on a flat surface where India gunned down the target with an over to spare courtesy of blazing fifties from KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan. While Shami snapped three wickets, he was on the expensive side, leaking at 10 runs an over.
Hardik should be ready to bowl by the start of the tournament: Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma also gave a crucial update about Hardik Pandya’s bowling fitness. Pandya, who holds the key to the balance of the side, didn’t bowl a single ball in the entire IPL 2021 season for Mumbai Indians.
He was constantly being monitored as he has been dealing with back injury issues for the past couple of years.
Stressing on the importance of a sixth bowler, Sharma stated that while Hardik isn’t deemed completely fit to bowl now, they are expecting him to contribute with the ball during the main tournament.
“We want to make sure that we get the 6th bowling option, some options in the batting order as well, we’ll try all those things today. Hardik is coming along pretty well, but it’ll be a while before he will start to bowl. He hasn’t started bowling, but he should be ready by the start of the tournament. We have quality in the main bowlers, but you need an option for a 6th bowler,” Rohit Sharma said.
Shardul Thakur is the other seam-bowling all-rounder who was added to the main 15-man squad replacing Axar Patel.
India will be taking on Pakistan in their opening encounter on October 24 in Dubai.