KL Rahul is the latest injury blow that the Indian cricket team has to deal with during the ongoing five-match Test series against England as the middle-order batter is set to miss the third match in Rajkot, as per reports. Rahul, along with Ravindra Jadeja, missed the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam owing to a right quadriceps injury.
It was expected that Rahul will be available for selection in the third Test with the nature of the injury not being that serious, however, as per The Indian Express, the 31-year-old wasn’t able to regain full fitness before the Rajkot clash and the BCCI will assess him again in a week’s time. Rahul being ruled out means a potentially well-deserved debut for Sarfaraz Khan, who has waited for his chance for the longest.
The report stated that Karnataka left-hander Devdutt Padikkal, who has been smashing centuries for fun in the Ranji Trophy has replaced Rahul in the squad for the third Test. Padikkal has smashed four centuries including the best of 193 and a fifty in his last six first-class matches (four in Ranji Trophy and two for India A).
As per BCCI in the official release, “participation of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul is subject to fitness clearance from the BCCI medical team” at the time of the announcement of the squad for the remaining three Tests. The rest of the squad remained the same, apart from Shreyas Iyer getting dropped following a lean patch in the red-ball cricket.
More to follow…
