Kohli's unawareness of Rohit's injury 'very unfortunate', says Gambhir
Dec 02, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 2 : Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir said that it is "very unfortunate" that skipper Virat Kohli has no clue regarding the update on Rohit Sharma, stressing that there could have been much better communication.
"It's very unfortunate, because....he's the captain.....Virat Kohli....see again, he's gone into the press conference, he's told the media that he had no clue about the update. Probably, the three most important people in this entire scenario are, the head physio, your head coach and your chairman selector," Gambhir said while speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.
"So, all these people should've been on the same page and your head coach should've actually updated Virat Kohli on that front as to what's the update on Rohit Sharma. You're going into the press conference and saying that he had no clue about the injury or the update on Rohit Sharma's injury, which is very, very unfortunate, because somewhere down the line, he's an important player and at the same time, there could've been a much better communication and co-ordination, which was lacking somewhere," he added.
Gambhir's remark comes as there is some amount of confusion regarding the injury of Rohit. Rohit had played three matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being advised two weeks rest because of his hamstring injury and then went to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for rehab rather than flying to Australia with the rest of the Indian players.
Before the start of the ODI series against Australia, Kohli had said that the waiting game on Rohit's injury is not ideal. The captain had also said there has been a "lack of clarity" regarding Rohit's injury. However, on the very same day, the BCCI issued a release stating that Rohit did not travel to Australia as he had to attend to his ailing father.
Former batsman VVS Laxman also said that the communication gap is disappointing and does not know why there is a "communication breakdown."
"I feel that in the first place he (Rohit Sharma) should have been selected and the communication gap is something which is disappointing. I am really surprised because in this age of communication where there are so many WhatsApp groups, there's usually a group mail which goes around, I'm sure a group between the team management, the chairman of the selection committee and the in-charge of the medical team of the BCCI. Usually, everything is updated to the team management and everyone is kept in the loop. So, I am not sure why is there a communication breakdown as far as this case is concerned and we are talking about two senior players," Laxman said.
