No clarity at all on injury issues of Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma: Virat Kohli

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NEW DELHI: India captain Virat Kohli on the eve of the first One-day International against Australia on Thursday said that there had been no clarity on the injuries of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma and that had they been undergoing rehab with the squad in Australia, like Wriddhiman Saha, it would have increased their chances of playing in the Test series.

"It would have definitely increased their chances of playing matches here. Someone like Saha is here, doing his rehab...we are aware of his progress and we are on the right path to make sure that he is fit and available in time to play the Test series," he said in a virtual press conference in Sydney, where the first ODI will be played on Friday.

"Same would have been the case with Ishant and Rohit as well...would have given a chance to get fit and be available for the start of the Test series and right now there is so much uncertainty on whether they are going to make it or not going to make it. It definitely would have been helpful in getting them fit and doing rehab here just like Saha is with team to get fit," said Kohli.

Kohli narrated the chain of events and claimed that he was not kept informed about the progress of Rohit Sharma. He said that there was lack of communication on the injury issue.

"Well, before we had the selection meeting with selectors in Dubai, we were told that he is injured and unavailable for selection and it mentioned a line that there is a two-week rest and rehab period (they had to undergo). It said that the pros and cons and implications of the injury have been explained to him and he understood that, and he was unavailable for selection and that is the information we got on mail before the selection meeting," he said.

"After that, he played the IPL so we all thought he will be on that flight to Australia which he wasn't on...we had no information on the reason why he is not travelling with us and after that the only other information we received on mail is that he is in the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and he has been assessed."

Kohli further stressed on the lack of "uncertainty and lack of clarity" on the issue.

"The only other information was that he will be assessed further on December 11, there has been information from the time of selection meeting to IPL finishing and the email coming on December 11, to now. There has been no information, there has been lack of clarity, we have been playing waiting game on this issue for a while now which is not ideal at all, so it has been very confusing there has been lot of uncertainty and lack of clarity on the situations," he said.

Ishant and Rohit are currently undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.