Injury rules Rohit Sharma out of remainder of New Zealand tour

ESPNCricinfo: India have suffered a big setback ahead of the ODI and Test series against New Zealand, with Rohit Sharma ruled out of the remainder of the tour because of a calf injury.

The injury took place when Sharma, leading India with Virat Kohli rested, was batting in the fifth and final T20I in Mount Maunganui on Sunday. He was on 54 at the time, and was treated on the field by the team’s physio, but opted to continue batting. He hit a six, off Ish Sodhi, but was forced to retire hurt soon after, having reached 60.

Sharma is one of the primary openers across formats for India, and the selectors are likely to look for his replacement(s) in the India A contingent, which is currently playing a four-day series against New Zealand A with the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill in their ranks.India’s Test squad hasn’t been announced yet, but they have already lost two players to injury, with Sharma’s pulling out coming on the heels of Hardik Pandya being ruled out.

The three-match ODI series against New Zealand starts tomorrow in Hamilton, followed by matches in Auckland and Mount Maunganui. The final leg of the Indian tour, comprising two Tests, will commence on 21 February in Wellington and move to Christchurch, where the second Tests starts on 29 February. Sharma will rue the timing of the injury, coming as it did at an important moment in his career. He was on the verge of making the Test debut in 2010, but an ankle injury on the morning of the Test in Nagpur pushed back that moment by three years. Two years back, Sharma acknowledged that he had to make peace with himself and just cash in as and when opportunities came, without worrying about Test selection anymore. He did cash in big time after being selected as a Test opener in India’s last home season, which featured South Africa and Bangladesh. Till yesterday, Sharma trailed Virat Kohli by just 46 runs, with the pair occupying the top two slots among the highest run-makers for India across all formats since the start of 2019. In this period, Sharma has the most hundreds – 11 – compared to Kohli’s seven, including the five during the 2019 World Cup, the most by a batsman in a single edition of the competition. Against South Africa, opening for the first time in Tests, Sharma scored twin centuries in Visakhapatnam and followed that up with a double-century in Ranchi, cementing his opener’s slot in the process.