BCCI asks CA to relax quarantine rules for Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma
As the clouds still loom over Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma's participation in India's 4-match Test series against Australia in December, the BCCI is reportedly in talks with its Australian counterparts to relax the quarantine rules for the duo.
As per the general protocol, a 14-day quarantine is mandatory in Australia.
If the original rules are to be followed, Rohit and Ishant Sharma should leave for Australia at the latest by 27th November to be able to play the second tour game in Sydney from December 11 to 13. This also means that both players will be in Australia with little practice between the tour and the IPL 2020.
According to a report in The Indian Express, a BCCI official was quoted saying that if the rules are relaxed, both players can reach just in time to play the warm-up game in Sydney.
The BCCI official said:
"BCCI is in talks with CA (Cricket Australia) which in turn is negotiating with the Australian government about a relaxation in the quarantine rules (for the two players). If the rules are relaxed, then both Rohit and Ishant could be available for the (second) tour game."
Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma have failed to recover on time
Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma were undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. Rohit Sharma suffered a hamstring strain during the second half of IPL 2020, while Ishant suffered an abdominal muscle tear and was ruled out of the IPL after playing just one game. The former was also ruled out of the limited-overs leg of the tour.
It was reported that their recent recovery reports at the NCA were less than encouraging and that their chances to participate in the series were bleak.
Earlier, the Indian team's head coach Ravi Shastri had hinted at the same result if they couldn't board their flights on time.
If Rohit Sharma doesn't play, K.L Rahul could be in the fray to replace him in the Test set-up as the opener. Navdeep Saini could also be in contention to make his Test debut in Adelaide as a replacement for Ishant Sharma.
India starts their much-awaited defense of the Border-Gavaskar trophy on 17the December after competing in a couple of white-ball series which start on 27th November.