Rohit Sharma Suffers Knee Injury During Melbourne Nets Session

Rohit Sharma was spotted icing his left knee after being hit on the flap of his left pad during a throwdown session at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. The experienced batsman walked off slowly and did not resume batting, sitting out for around 30 minutes while chatting with team analyst Hari. As he made his way to the dressing room, he was also spotted limping slightly and speaking with bowling coach Morne Morkel and some of the other batters at the nets.

According to team sources, Rohit's knee swelled after the impact, and the BCCI medical team is keeping a close watch on his condition before the most important Boxing Day Test. Although Rohit would have liked to bat longer, he started with bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna before switching to spinners Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, and Devdutt Padikkal, until the session was cut short due to injury.

Although it isn't considered to be so grave an injury that it could make Rohit miss the fourth Test, it remains an issue for both the individual and the team. He would keep icing his knee in the hopes of bringing down swelling, and one of the coaching staff even took a photo of his swollen knee.

Indian Players Criticize Practice Pitches Ahead of Boxing Day Test

After being rested on Saturday, Bumrah was back in action at the nets on Sunday bowling with energy to players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, and KL Rahul. He was in great spirits and bowled with full intensity putting the Indian batters to the test. However, there’s some dissatisfaction within the Indian team regarding the practice pitches ahead of the Boxing Day Test.

The four available pitches have very little grass and a brownish color, which, according to Akash Deep in a press conference are better for white-ball cricket. The uneven bounce on these pitches caused some discomfort for both Akash and Rohit while batting. Some practice pitches are covered and reserved for the Australian team, so it’s unclear if those pitches will be more suitable.

Akash commented, "The practice pitch is probably meant for white-ball cricket; the ball kept low at times. As for these minor injuries, these things happen at training, and there are no major concerns because of that. I’m fine."

The Indian team will take a rest day on Monday before returning to training on Tuesday with hopes of taking a 2-1 lead in the series in Melbourne.