The noise surrounding Rohit Sharma’s hamstring injury during IPL 2020 gave the man himself a few laughs, who says he always knew that it was not a serious knock. Rohit said he was sure of being fit and ready to go for the Australia tour.
“I don’t know what was going on, to be honest and what all were people talking about. But let me put this on record, I was constantly communicating with BCCI and Mumbai Indians,” Rohit told PTI.
Rohit smashed a fluent 68 off 50 balls in the IPL final against Delhi Capitals and played through with the discomfort. The right hander is currently doing strength and conditioning work at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru before heading to Australia. He will fly out with Ishant Sharma, who’s also on course to recover well on time for the Test series.
“I told them (Mumbai Indians) that I can take the field since it is the shortest format and I will be able to manage the situation quite nicely. Once I made my mind clear, it was all about focussing on what I needed to do,” he said.
“Hamstring is feeling absolutely fine. Just started the process of getting it nice and strong. Before I play the longer format, I absolutely needed to be clear in mind that there is no stone that is left unturned, that’s probably the reason, I’m at the NCA,” Rohit added.
The Mumbai Indians skipper said he did not pay much heed to the noise around him playing with an injury concern during the IPL’s knockouts.
“So for me, it was not a concern what x, y or z was talking about like whether he would make it to Australia,” he said.
“Once the injury happened, the next two days all I did was to figure out what I can do in the next 10 days, whether I will be able to play or not.
Unless one goes to the ground, one won’t know how the body is shaping up, feels the five-time IPL champion captain.
“But every day, hamstring (degree of injury) was changing. The way it was responding was changing, so I was feeling quite confident that I could play and that is the communication that I had with MI at that point.
“I told them that I think I will be okay to play just before play-offs. If there is any discomfort, I won’t be playing the play-offs.”
All Rohit needed was three and half weeks to get ready for Tests and he fails to understand what the fuss was all about given that the series starts December 17.
Rohit also touched upon his IPL leadership and spoke about the freedom he gives his players by letting them evolve as individuals. He cited Suryakumar Yadav’s composure while dealing with India rejection as an example.
“We were sitting in our team room and I could feel he was dejected. But I didn’t go and speak to him. It was he who came up and said, ‘Don’t worry I will get over it and win the matches for MI’.
“And when he said that I also realised he is heading in right direction not only in terms of IPL but in his overall career. There are a lot of India games and his time will come.
“If you ask me, my philosophy is mind over matter and that’s what works for me.”
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