Rohit joins upbeat Indian team in Melbourne
Melbourne: Star batsman Rohit Sharma on Wednesday joined the Indian team here after completing his two-week quarantine in Sydney, bolstering the tourists who are on a high after scripting an incredible comeback in the ongoing four-match Test series against Australia.
Days after recording their lowest Test total of 36 in the series-opener in Adelaide, the Indian team staged a remarkable turnaround to humble Australia by eight wickets and level the rubber at the MCG.
Rohit's inclusion will strengthen the team that was going through one of its worst phases last week.
"So how was your quarantine, my friend," chief coach Ravi Shastri was heard asking Rohit in a video posted by BCCI.
The batsman was heard saying he is feeling younger.
Rohit exchanged greetings with the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, and batting coach Vikram Rathour.
Shastri said the medical team will look at how the player is physically after completing his quarantine before a call is taken on his inclusion in the playing XI for the third Test against Australia in Sydney.
The third Test is scheduled to be played from January 7.
"We will have a chat with him to see where he is placed physically because he has been in quarantine for the last couple of weeks. We'll also see how he feels before we take the call," Shastri had said in the post-match press conference after India's win on Tuesday.
On December 11, the BCCI had announced that the opener cleared the eagerly-watched fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, paving the way for his departure for Australia ahead of the four-Test series.
Rohit had sustained a hamstring injury during the IPL, which led to him missing the white-ball leg and the first two Tests of the ongoing tour.
It remains to be seen who makes way for Rohit from the side that trounced Australia in the second Test.
Batting great Sunil Gavaskar has backed the swashbuckling Mumbaikar to open the batting with the young Shubman Gill in Sydney.
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Student found dead in hostel room in IIT Kharagpur
Kolkata (PTI): A 22-year-old M Tech student was found dead in his hostel room in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, the second such incident reported on the campus within a span of 10 days.
The student, identified as Soham Haldar, was found hanging from the ceiling of his hostel room on Tuesday and he was immediately taken to the institute hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, an IIT Kharagpur official said.
Haldar, a dual-degree student in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, was a boarder of the Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Hall of Residence on the campus.
Police from the Kharagpur Town police station have initiated a probe into the incident as preliminary findings indicated that it could be a case of suicide, though the exact cause of death will be ascertained following the post-mortem examination, the official said.
In a statement, the institute expressed deep grief over the student's death and said a detailed inquiry has been initiated.
The authorities have informed the family and are extending all possible assistance to them, it added.
Director Suman Chakraborty told PTI that the institute will strengthen the mechanism to identify stressed-out and depressed students and take follow-up steps to address their issues.
The grief-stricken parents of the student, who hailed from Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, have come to the campus and the authorities will speak to them, he said.
"Haldar's friends, faculty and staffers also could not gauge any stress or anxiety in him. But we need to enable students suffering from anxiety and extreme stress to open up their minds and do everything needed to prevent such incidents," he said.
Investigators are also scrutinising CCTV footage from the hostel premises to piece together the sequence of events leading to the incident.
The incident comes close on the heels of another student's death reported on April 18, when 21-year-old Jaibir Singh Dodia, a third-year Mechanical Engineering student from Ahmedabad, allegedly died after jumping from the eighth floor of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall of Residence. That case is also under investigation.
The back-to-back incidents have once again brought the issue of mental health and student support systems at the institute into focus, especially in view of several such cases reported last year.
