INDIAN captain Rohit Sharma has informed the Mumbai team management that he will be turning up for the practice session for Ranji Trophy which is scheduled to be held on Tuesday morning at the Wankhede Stadium.
Sharma has resumed his training at the MCA-BKC ground in order to prepare for the upcoming Champions Trophy. The Mumbai team will make use of a centre-wicket practice session for their next Ranji Trophy league round which is scheduled to be played in Mumbai against Jammu & Kashmir. A source in the MCA informed that Sharma hasn’t given his availability yet and is still mulling whether to play the Ranji Trophy league game or not.
“He will be coming for practice sessions with the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team and it is still not decided whether he will be playing the next Ranji Trophy game against J&K. He will inform the MCA in due course,” a source in the MCA informed. Sharma’s last appearance with the Mumbai team was in 2015 against Uttar Pradesh. He had a series of bad knocks in India’s tour of Australia, scoring 3,9, 10, 3, 6 runs in four Test matches, averaging around 10.93, and then decided to step down from captaincy for the last Test against Australia in Sydney.
Earlier the Indian team coach Gautam Gambhir had stated how he likes everyone to play domestic cricket.
“I would always like everyone to play domestic cricket. That is how much importance domestic cricket needs to be given. Not only one game, but if they are available and have the commitment to play red-ball cricket, everyone should play domestic cricket. It’s as simple as it can get. If you don’t give importance to domestic cricket, you will never get the desired players that you want in Test cricket,” Gambhir had said after India’s series defeat in Sydney.
The remaining Ranji Trophy round is scheduled to kick off from January 23 and it will be interesting to see whether Virat Kohli too turns up for Delhi. Kohli’s last appearance for the team came in 2012. The BCCI has advised its players to take part in domestic cricket but it hasn’t made it mandatory for its contracted players.
