By Karan Agrawal 
Indian captain Rohit Sharma is set to play in the Ranji Trophy after a gap of 10 years. The right-hander has confirmed his availability for Mumbai’s match against Jammu & Kashmir, scheduled to begin on January 23. Rohit, who last played a Ranji Trophy game in 2015, has been going through a bad patch in test cricket, scoring just 68 in his last five matches. Rohit’s decision comes after the BCCI made it mandatory for all centrally contracted players to play domestic cricket if they are not picked in any of the three squads.
The Reaction
Reacting to BCCI’s decision the Indian captain said “If you go back and watch our calendar, there hasn’t been a time where we were sitting at home for 45 days and there is cricket going on. You do get that time when you finish IPL, and if there’s nothing happening right after that.
But if you see our domestic season, it starts in October, maybe September. And it gets over by March, February-March. And that is the time India plays a lot of cricket as well,” Rohit Sharma said during a press conference on Saturday.
The Reason
Elaborating on why players find it difficult to play domestic cricket Rohit said “So, guys who are not playing certain formats and have time, and then there is domestic cricket happening, then they will play. But the last 6-7 years, I can at least tell about what has happened with me since I have started playing Test cricket regularly, which is from 2019. You hardly have any time.”
“And then when you play so much international cricket through the year, you need some time off as well as a cricketer just to refresh, get your mind right, just to be ready for the upcoming season,” he added.
The Decision
Speaking further, Rohit said, “But we have addressed it now, and nobody takes it for granted or anything like that. It is just based on, you know, looking at how one has gone through the season, how much rest he needs. Based on all of that, we decide what is going to happen with certain players. And then, yeah, obviously,y now it’s been made mandatory that if there is time, you have to play domestic cricket.”
The Availability
As far as the availability of other players who were a part of the India team during the tour of Australia is concerned middle order batter Sarfaraz Khan won’t be able to play in the match against Jammu & Kashmir owing to a rib injury an MCA source told Hindustan Times “Sarfaraz has injured his ribs and has informed us about his unavailability for the next Ranji Trophy match,” the MCA source said. On the other hand, Former Indian captain Virat Kohli and wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul won’t be available for their team’s match against Saurashtra and Punjab respectively
The Opportunity
Among other batters opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal has made himself available for Mumbai’s next Ranji Trophy match scheduled to begin on January 23 an MCA source told Hindustan Times about the development while wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant will make his first Ranji appearance for Delhi since 2017 along with Shubman Gill who will feature in Punjab’s game against Karnataka.