Will Virat Kohli’s injury torment the Indian batting line up?

The day one of the third test of the Border Gavaskar trophy did not go well enough for the hosts with the visitors building up valuable partnerships at regular intervals. The Aussie skipper Steve Smith notched up another century (118 n.o) along with Glenn Maxwell playing at 82 not out by the end of the day and Australia 299/4.

But the major damage suffered by the Indian team was the injury of the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. With Ravindra Jadeja coming on to bowl the 40th over, Handscomb flicked the first ball of the over towards long on. In an attempt to save the boundary, Virat came running from mid on and dived ferociously only to land on his right shoulder in a peculiar manner while trying to flick the ball back and injuring himself. The injury forced Virat to leave the field with immediate action and was absent on the field for the rest of the day.

Ajinkya Rahane was seen taking over the captaincy in Virat’s absence. The skipper was seen cheering the team from the dressing room with ice packs wrapped to his shoulder. With Australia looking confident to post a big total on the board, it will be important that the finest Indian batsman is capable to bat despite the injury. But one should have a look at the ICC’s rules in order to allow Virat bat who had been off the field for more than half of the day’s play.

According to ICC’s conditions, for a player being off the field for more than eight minutes, he shall not be permitted to bat unless in aggregate he has been back to the field and his side’s innings has been in progress for a span atleast equal to the time he had been away from the field. In case of time not being compensated, he can come to bat only when his side has lost five wickets. However this might not be applicable to a player suffering an external injury while engaged in the play which is the case with Virat Kohli. Thus Virat can be exempted from the above restrictions due to external injury.

Indian fielding coach R Sridhar expressed that Virat was affected with a shock due to the thrust of landing and has been rested due to precautionary measures. The coach stated that “The exact status of the injury will be known by the next morning. He is supposed to undergo a few scans later in the evening and know the exact status next morning”. Expressing positive signs for the supporters, BCCI said that Virat is under treatment after this blow to his shoulder but is expected to continue playing the test and also stated that there had been no serious concerns to hinder his speedy recovery.

It will be important for the Indian side that Virat comes out to bat because he is one of the best batsman in the line-up and has had a terrific run of form this season. Moreover Australia are all set for a challenging score and India will definitely need a player like Virat to bat. It will be interesting  to see how the Indian batsman respond in case of unavailability of the skipper.