“He knows how to manage it” - India’s assistant coach provides massive update on Rohit Sharma’s injury ahead of IND vs NZ 2025 Champions Trophy match

Team India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has opened up about skipper Rohit Sharma's injury concerns ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy group-stage clash against New Zealand (Sunday, March 2). The opening batter has been struggling with a hamstring issue since the win against Pakistan and is deemed doubtful for the upcoming fixture.

Rohit Sharma had tweaked his hamstring while fielding against Pakistan and even went off the field for a while. However, he returned to continue for the rest of the innings and also opened the innings with Shubman Gill, scoring 20 runs.

India were granted an extended break after their first two group-stage matches, but the captain was not extensively involved in practice with the rest of the squad during this period.

With India set to play the 2025 Champions Trophy semi-final a couple of days after the match against New Zealand, player rotation may come into play.

Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate revealed that Rohit Sharma is recovering well from the injury and that India may look to shuffle things around from a bowling perspective for the New Zealand match.

"He's all right. It's an injury he's had before, so he knows how to manage it really well," ten Doeschate told reporters in Dubai (via ESPNcricinfo). In terms of the bench strength, I think the priority is making sure that we have our best guys available and fully fit for the second game [the semi-final on March 4]. But we also don't want to rest them for another two days [India have had a week off]."

He added:

"So to get that balance right, we might just try to share the bowling out a little bit. But we obviously want to win against New Zealand as well. It's important that we keep that momentum going and obviously to top the group as well. So the balance of those two things I just mentioned [is] to be thought about."

Team India are scheduled to face New Zealand on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium. Their semi-final encounter will also take place at the same venue on March 4.

Rohit Sharma had sustained a hamstring injury ahead of the South Africa tour in 2021

The Indian skipper is not injury prone per se, but he has had to deal with the odd niggles and setbacks over the years. In the same interaction, Ryan ten Doeschate mentioned that Rohit Sharma had dealt with a similar hamstring issue in the past as well.

One such instance came in late 2021 when Rohit Sharma tweaked his hamstring while training in Mumbai ahead of the South Africa tour. The severity is considerably less on this particular occasion, as he is in contention to play the match instead of being ruled out altogether.