All-rounder Hardik Pandya being stretchered off during Wednesday’s match against Pakistan wasn’t the only injury concern for India’s team management ahead of the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup. In fact, the selection committee was forced to make three changes to the squad on the eve of India’s opening Super Four match, against Bangladesh, on Thursday.
Besides Hardik, whose acute lower back spasm is expected to take at least a fortnight to heal, pace bowler Shardul Thakur and left-arm spinner Axar Patel were also ruled out due to a right groin and left index finger injury respectively.
A BCCI statement confirmed that swing bowler Deepak Chahar, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and pacer Siddharth Kaul will join the squad as replacements before Friday’s clash.
Deepak Chahar.
The Hindu understands that Thakur is likely to recover from his groin niggle in barely a week and will join Mumbai’s squad for the latter half of the Vijay Hazare Trophy league stage.
Axar may have to wait longer before returning to action.
After a year
While Chahar, who made his international debut in the lone T20 in England in July, has been improving as a batsman besides his honing his skills with the ball, Jadeja has been recalled to limited overs’ squad almost a year after his last appearance.
Kaul, interestingly, spent four days bowling to the first batch of India’s squad in the nets in Dubai before flying back home two days ago.
Having been acclimatised with the extremely hot conditions in the Emirates, Kaul would fancy himself getting some game-time.
Siddharth Kaul.
While Jadeja would be a handful both with both the bat and ball, Shahbaz Nadeem would feel dejected for again missing the cut.
After serving as a net bowler, the Jharkhand left-arm spinner registered the best-ever bowling figures in the history of List A cricket on Thursday.
But, it turned out to be too little too late since the selectors had finalised the replacements early in the morning.
