Rohit Sharma’s exclusion from the Indian squad for the Australian tour instantly became the talk of the town. Sharma, who just lifted his 5th IPL with Mumbai Indians, was left out of India’s squad citing his fitness the reason behind it. Team India failed in the ODIs but emerged victorious in the T20 series against the Australians. Nevertheless, the “Hit-man” is tipped to return to the Indian squad for the Test series in Australia but his availability will totally depend on his fitness.

Rohit Wants To Lose The Extra Kilos

Rohit Sharma is currently working on his fitness at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Sharma, who was suppose to join the Indian team as Virat Kohli’s replacement, was ruled out of the second Test as well due to his struggle with his hamstring injury. However, the Indian vice-captain is putting extra miles to recover from his injury as well as working on his fitness. Rohit Sharma faced plenty of criticism for his unfit body during the Dream11 IPL. Sharma appeared overweight in the latest edition of the T20 tournament and was cited “fat” by the trolls.

Latest reports claim that Rohit Sharma is, now, motivated to shred the extra pounds before he joins the Indian squad in Australia for the Test series. Rohit Sharma can could land on Australia on December 11 if he is declared fit by the BCCI. However, the MI skipper is concentrating more on getting “back in shape”.

“Unless the physio gives a clean chit, a player can’t undergo a high-intensity fitness test. But if he is undergoing rehab on an injury in his lower body, he can work on his upper body’s conditioning and shed weight. A lighter upper body will ensure he doesn’t put much strain on the dodgy hamstring,” a BCCI source told TOI.

“Rohit doesn’t want to take any chance this time. He is very conscious about the fitness standards. He has been plagued by injuries in the last year. Then the lockdown happened before he got on with his IPL duties. He has been on the road for two years too. That didn’t really give him much of a chance to work on his fitness. Now, he wants to ensure he is in perfect shape and his body is ready to endure the rigours of non-stop cricket next year,” the source added.