"Nice reason to hide injury"- Fans roast Rohit Sharma for testing positive for COVID-19, want Virat Kohli to lead in one-off Test against England
Indian captain Rohit Sharma tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, days before the start of the one-off Test against England at Edgbaston.
Rohit is India's highest scorer in the series that began last year and his unavailability could turn out to be a huge blow to the visitors.
Here's what the BCCI tweeted just a few hours ago:
"UPDATE - #TeamIndia Captain Mr. Rohit Sharma has tested positive for COVID-19 following a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and is under the care of the BCCI Medical Team."
Rohit Sharma scored 25 runs in the first innings of the practice game against Leicestershire. He didn't bat in the second innings and probably won't get any time to practice before the Test starts, as he will need to recover fully from COVID-19.
Despite the doubts cast over his availability, fans on Twitter are hopeful Rohit will recover in time. Some have also trolled him for missing quite a few series in the recent past due to injuries and other reasons. They feel Virat Kohli should be made captain again for the one-off Test.
Here are some of the reactions:
How will India cope without Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul?
One of the main reasons why India are leading the series 2-1 at the moment is because of the way their openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul batted. The duo got their team off to fine starts in almost every innings and blunted the effects of the new ball.
However, with Rahul out injured and Rohit not a certainty at the moment, it will be interesting to see what opening combination Team India go with. It also remains to be seen whether Jasprit Bumrah will become the stand-in captain if Rohit Sharma fails to recover in time.