Veteran opener Rohit Sharma, who joined the rest of his teammates in Melbourne on Wednesday, has hit the nets with New Year 2021. Sharma, who travelled to Australia after weeks of rehab at the NCA in Bengaluru, was in a 14-day hard quarantine which he spent in a 2-bedroom apartment in Sydney.

Rohit Sharma, on Wednesday, received a warm welcome from his teammates and the support staff as he walked into the team hotel in Melbourne. The star batsman has now finally started training outdoors and, as seen in the video posted by ICC, has hit the nets.

In the video, Sharma looks to be in good touch and that could be a huge positive for Team India who have currently levelled the series 1-1 against Australia.

The BCCI, on Friday, named Rohit Sharma as the vice-captain in the last two Test matches of the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Sharma has replaced Cheteshwar Pujara as Ajinkya Rahane’s deputy in the Test series. T Natarajan and Shardul Thakur were also added to the squad for the final two Tests.

The 3rd Test match in Sydney will start on January 7 and Rohit Sharma’s selection in the playing XI will depend on the assessment of coach Ravi Shastri.

Team India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan

(With inputs from agencies)