KL Rahul replacement: The Indian batsman has been ruled out of the remaining two Test matches against Australia.
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India batsman Lokesh Rahul has been ruled out of the third and fourth Test match against Australia due to a wrist injury which he suffered during a practice session in Melbourne.
According to a BCCI release, Rahul sprained his left wrist while batting in the nets on Saturday and will return to India to continue his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
The development means that Rahul has joined the likes of Rohit Sharma (recovered), Ishant Sharma (injury), Ravindra Jadeja (recovered), Virat Kohli (paternity leave), Mohammed Shami (injury) and Umesh Yadav (injury) in the list of players who’ve missed some or entire part of the ongoing Test series due to various reasons.
What a fabulous win at the G 🏟️
Clinical and comprehensive 🇮🇳 Well done boys 👏 pic.twitter.com/h64I3Sq0Fq— K L Rahul (@klrahul11) December 29, 2020
Been sidelined for “about three weeks”, it will be interesting to see if the 28-year old player recovers in time to get picked for the four-match Test series against England beginning from February 5 in Chennai.
KL Rahul replacement
Rahul, who has successfully become India’s go-to wicket-keeper batsman in white-ball cricket, didn’t get to play in the Test series. Despite several openings in the Indian batting lineup, Rahul was not preferred due to his limited number of appearances in red-ball cricket in the last year or so.
With batsman Rohit Sharma’s return, chances of Rahul playing his first Test in 16 months had further decreased. As far as Rahul’s replacement is concerned, BCCI haven’t named anyone as of now and are unlikely to do the same given how a mandatory quarantine period won’t allow any new player to be available for the fourth Test starting from January 15.
Meanwhile, India have already reached Sydney where they are training for the third Test which is set to begin from January 7 with 25% crowd capacity. With the series currently level at 1-1, both teams will be wanting to take a lead amidst a rainy weather forecast for the third Test.
