Rohit Sharma arrives at the NCA amid lack of clarity over fitness

A week after returning home from the UAE as a victorious IPL captain, Rohit Sharma, who played the last three weeks of the tournament at "70 percent fitness" according to the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, arrived at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru on Thursday. It isn't clear yet if Rohit is at the NCA to finish his rehabilitation or take a fitness test.

There has been some confusion surrounding Rohit's hamstring injury. It was expected earlier that he would fly with the rest of the team to Australia directly from Dubai on November 12. And only a week prior to the departure, Ganguly had asked Rohit to exercise caution given the nature of his injury.

"Rohit is injured at the moment. Otherwise, why would we leave out a player like him? He is the vice-captain of the national [limited-overs'] team," Ganguly had said. "We will have to assess him. I don't know [when he can come back]. He hasn't played so far since the time he has got injured. We want him to recover. It's the BCCI's job to get their best players on the park. If he recovers, he plays."

Rohit had suffered a hamstring tear in his left leg during the Mumbai Indians' match against the Kings XI Punjab in Dubai on October 18. He missed the team's next four games, but came back for the last three, helping them seal the title with a match-winning half-century against the Delhi Capitals in the final.

The selection committee had first left Rohit out of all three squads for Australia, but he was later added to the Test squad. If he is cleared by the NCA staff and Sunil Joshi, the chief selector who is also assessing the fitness of Ishant Sharma at the NCA, Rohit will join the squad directly ahead of the Test series.

But it isn't yet clear if Rohit and Ishant will be available for both the warm-up fixtures leading into the first Test in Adelaide from December 17.