Off The Field

‘Is IPL more important to Rohit Sharma than playing for India?’: Dilip Vengsarkar questions BCCI

Written by Sumit Seth

The Rohit Sharma saga took a new turn on Tuesday when the Mumbai Indians captain came out to bat against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Rohit had missed four games in the IPL before the match due to a hamstring injury and he was also not included in the India squad for Australia tour because he was believed to be not fully fit.

But on being asked about his injury, Rohit claimed that he is fine, and is looking forward to playing for the MI in the playoffs. Former India cricketer and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar raised question over this and said that BCCI needs to explain if they made an error in determining Rohit’s injuries ahead of the Australia tour.

“It’s intriguing that Rohit Sharma, the most accomplished batsman of Team India, who was only a few days ago declared unfit to tour Australia by the Indian team’s physio (Nitin Patel) and hence not selected for the trip, is playing and leading MI in the IPL,” Vengsarkar was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

Vengsarkar further said that the current situation gives the impression that for Rohit, franchise cricket is more important than playing for the country.

“Now, the question here is, is the IPL more important to him than playing for India? Is the club more important than playing for the nation for him? Will the BCCI take a call on this? Or is it that the BCCI physio faltered in diagnosing Rohit’s injury correctly,” Vengsarkar said.

Meanwhile, Rohit, after MI’s 10-wicket defeat to SRH, had said that his hamstring is fine. “I was happy to be back, it’s been a while. I’m looking forward to play few more games here, let’s see what happens. It (hamstring) is fine, absolutely,” Rohit had said.

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Sumit Seth