KL Rahul news: KL Rahul replaces Shikhar Dhawan as captain of India squad for Zimbabwe 2022

KL Rahul news: The wicket-keeper was set to miss his seventh straight series for team India after earlier being ruled out for Zimbabwe tour.

In an unexpected turn of events, team India’s wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul has not only been declared fit to play in India colours, but has resultantly also been named as the skipper of the team scheduled to tour to Zimbabwe for a three-match ODI series.

The development means that the Southpaw opener Shikhar Dhawan, who was earlier elected to lead the 15-member squad for the imminent tour, has been named as his deputy.

The 15-member squad remains intact with Rahul being the lone addition to the squad, which will tour to the African nation in the absence of the regulars in Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

KL Rahul declared fit to lead India in Zimbabwe. Replaces Shikhar as the Captain

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) August 11, 2022

KL Rahul news

As for Rahul, the Karnataka wicket-keeper batter was ruled out for the aforementioned tour, after he failed to recover from COVID-19, which had delayed his comeback into the team earlier for the recently concluded T20I series versus West Indies.

Although the 30-year-old had later clarified via a Twitter post that him failing to recover from COVID-19 was the sole reason for him being unavailable for selection for the West Indies tour, several reports from journalists had mentioned that it was a resurfaced hamstring injury that had kept his return at bay, thereby adding to the unwarranted ambiguity.

For those unaware, Rahul had, post IPL 2022, suffered a groin injury which had forced him to undergo a surgery for sports hernia in Germany a couple of months ago.

Thus, the first encounter versus Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on August 18, might well be his first ODI for India since February 2022.