Rohit Sharma didn't travel to Australia from UAE because his father had COVID-19

Rohit Sharma’s decision of not travelling to Australia directly from the UAE has been met with criticism from several quarters. Team India left for Australia just a day after the conclusion of IPL 2020. Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, decided to return to India with the Mumbai Indians camp after leading his side to the title.

Prior to his return to the country, the BCCI had included him in the Test squad while resting him for the ODI and the T20I series as a precautionary measure. Rohit had suffered a hamstring injury last month during the match against Kings XI Punjab on October 18 and was not named in any of the squads for the Australia tour.

But later, he returned to action for Mumbai and was subsequently added to the Tests squad. Last week, he travelled to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru to complete his rehab and recover fully for the series. However, he is reportedly nowhere close to being fully fit and is in a race against time to be fit for the series.

Reason behind Rohit Sharma not travelling to Australia:

Media reports suggesting that Rohit Sharma is unlikely to recover any time soon has invited criticism for him. Several quarters have stated that Rohit should have travelled with the team after the IPL and had completed the rehab in Australia. In such a scenario, he would have been available for selection right from the start of the Test series.

Well, one can say that the criticism is a bit unfair on Rohit. The reason behind his decision to return to India is not at all related to his injury or even commitment. According to cricket journalist Boria Majumdar, Rohit returned to the country because his father was suffering from COVID-19.

“The reason Rohit didn’t travel with the team [to Australia], came back to Mumbai with Mumbai Indians is because his father had COVID. That is the reality,” Boria was quoted as saying by Sports Today.

“After that, if he didn’t want to play red-ball series, there was no reason for him to travel to the NCA. He could have easily stayed back with Ritika (wife) and family. So there is absolutely no reason to say that Rohit didn’t want to play the red-ball series,” he added.

Meanwhile, reports are suggesting that the BCCI has requested Cricket Australia to relax the quarantine rules for Rohit as well as Ishant Sharma. Ishant is also at the NCA at present. According to the existing rules, anyone arriving in Australia needs to be in mandatory 14-day quarantine.