Injury scare for India as Rohit Sharma hit on forearm ahead of semifinal
The Indian cricket team ran into a major injury scare ahead of its T20 World Cup semifinal clash against England after their captain Rohit Sharma copped a blow to his right forearm during an optional training session on Tuesday at the Adelaide Oval.
Rohit, who was batting in the nets going through his usual drills, was struck by a ball while facing the team’s throwdown specialist, Raghu, following which he immediately looked in a bit of pain. The India captain took a break, sat on the sides while an ice pack was being applied to the area.
The India captain was taking throwdowns when a ball took off from a length area and hit him. He was attended to right away by the physio and some other members of the support staff. Rohit was also seen speaking to mind coach Paddy Upton as he iced the area that took the blow. However, after a brief period of monitoring, Rohit tried to take strike again but left the session mid-way.
The extent of the injury was not known and usually, no official statement is made expected till the medical team goes through a thorough investigation. The atmosphere though, remained rather relaxed and calm even as Rohit was treated on the sidelines. The other two India batters who had turned up for the options session, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik, went about their business without much fuss.
Things looked worrisome for a while as Rohit then left the throwdown session and was away for about 40 minutes. But thankfully, much to the relief of the Indian media that had gathered, Rohit returned, back for a second session and pulled up well. He resumed batting and appeared in full flow. The ice pack seemed to have done the trick. He batted for almost 15 minutes without looking in any discomfort whatsoever. In fact, Rohit looked like a million bucks as he played his trademark pull short, the upper-cut and big lofted hits.
Rohit hasn’t been in the greatest of nicks in the World Cup, having scored just 89 runs from five matches, which includes a half-century against the Netherlands. In India’s opening match against Pakistan, Rohit was dismissed cheaply as he nicked Haris Rauf to second slip. After scoring a crucial 53 against the Dutch, Rohit got off to a decent start against South Africa before mistiming a pull and getting out to a Kagiso Rabada bouncer. Rohit endured another failure against Bangladesh as despite getting a lifeline, he cut Taskin Ahmed to point, whereas against Zimbabwe, he was dismissed while playing his favourite pull shot.
India are already without pacer Jasprit Bumrah and star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom are not playing the World Cup due to respective injuries – Bumrah has a stress fracture in his back, while Jadeja is recovering from an injured knee which required surgery – and any further casualties could have really dented their campaign ahead of the team’s much-anticipated knockout contest on Thursday. More so now, when India are two wins away from winning the World Cup.