Adelaide: The Indian cricket team survived a scare ahead of the T20 World Cup semifinal against England as skipper Rohit Sharma sustained a powerful blow on his forearm during training Tuesday, but it did not turn out to be a serious injury.
Rohit was undergoing usual practice drills as he faced team’s throwdown expert S Raghu at the Adelaide Oval when a short ball jumped off the length area and hit his right forearm.
The captain, who was attempting a pull shot and missed the ball, was visibly in pain. After applying ice pack on the injured arm and resting for a while, Rohit resumed his training.
Team sources said the skipper is doing fine and should play the semifinal against England Thursday.
“He didn’t feel much discomfort when he batted for the second time. CT scan or x-ray might not be needed. Also we have one day in the middle which is also optional session. It doesn’t look serious as of now,” a source privy to development told PTI.
Rohit looked desolate and in considerable pain when he was watching the training session from a distance, sitting on an ice box, after being hit.
Mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton was seen talking to him for a considerable amount of time.
Rohit resumed his training after some time but throwdown experts were told not to go full throttle as he mostly played defensive shots to check if his movements were okay.
Rohit and his love-affair with horizontal bat shots
Rohit has a fascination for the attractive pull shot shot which has got him plenty of runs but he has also lost wickets playing the shot a number of times.
Even in this tournament, Rohit got out playing the pull-shot against Zimbabwe and South Africa while against Bangladesh, he was dropped in the deep trying to play the horizontal bat stroke.
Rohit also had similar kind of dismissals during the 2021 England series. It is a high-risk, high-gain shot and it is intrinsic to Rohit the player.
During the training, he dedicates maximum time to the pull-shot, whether it’s played behind the square or in-front of the square.
Even during the second training session on Tuesday after being hit, Rohit played a few pull shots with Raghu getting it to rear from length.
One of the pre-requisite to pull off the shot is the hand-eye co-ordination. However when one ages, reflexes are slightly on the wane and the reaction time is split second more, execution may suffer.
India will take on England in the second semi-final here Thursday while Pakistan and New Zealand will lock horns in first semi-final Wednesday in Sydney.
