Injured Dhawan ruled out of World Cup, cover Pant drafted into India squad
Southampton: Indian batsman Shikhar Dhawan was Wednesday ruled out of the ongoing World Cup and replaced by young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant after failing to make enough recovery in a fresh assessment of his thumb fracture.
Dhawan, 33, picked up the injury on his left thumb during the June 9 clash against Australia in London and was initially ruled out of three games — against Pakistan (June 16), Afghanistan (June 22) and the West Indies (June 27).
"Shikhar Dhawan has fractured the base of the metacarpal (bone) of his left hand. His hand will remain in a cast till mid-July which rules him out of the ICC 2019 World Cup," team's administrative manager Sunil Subramanium told media persons.
"We have written to the ICC requesting Rishabh Pant as a replacement," he added.
Pant comes in with an accumulated ODI experience of five matches but is considered a trump card owing to his fearless approach. He was part of the official standbys list along with Ambati Rayudu.
Dhawan was always running against time to be fit for the match against England, scheduled for June 30 in Birmingham.
It is learnt that the swashbuckling opener, who played through pain to score a hundred against Australia, "had no chance" of recovering in time.
"Dhawan was never going to be fit in time. However, the team management was reluctant to name a replacement. It was never on the same page with selectors who wanted to announce an official replacement right after his (Dhawan's) diagnosis," said a source privy to the developments.
Pant was brought in as cover for Dhawan after the team management decided to wait on the senior opener's recovery but an assessment of the injury this week did not throw up encouraging results.
As a consequence, the 21-year-old Pant, whose omission from the original squad had kicked up a storm given his exceptional form in the past one year, has got the big break.
Pant had scored impressive hundreds during the Test tours of England and Australia. He also enjoyed a good run in the IPL last month, scoring 488 runs with a strike rate of over 160.
