Despite not being fully healthy for much of the Asia
Cup, Shreyas Iyer has accomplished most of the goals the team management had
set for him as he recovered from an injury and tried to demonstrate his World
Cup match fitness, which is now less than three weeks away.
Iyer played in just one game during the Asia Cup,
India’s match against Pakistan in the group stage, before being sidelined due
to back spasms. Iyer’s ability to play in the World Cup has been called into
question due to a recent injury, but it looks like he will be available for the
three-ODI series against Australia that begins on September 22 in Mohali.
“Shreyas was not available for this game [final]
because there were certain parameters that were kept for him to tick off.
Today, he completed most of it,” Rohit Sharma said after India won their
eighth Asia Cup crown on Sunday after making short work of Sri Lanka. “I
would say 99% he should be okay as of now, but he looks good.
“He batted, he fielded for long hours before we
came in today So, he’s looking good at this point in time. I don’t think it’s a
worry for us.”
The Axar Patel update wasn’t as positive. After
sustaining a left quadriceps strain during India’s final Super Four match
against Bangladesh on Friday, Axar was ruled out of the championship game.
Washington Sundar, who had been flown in from Bengaluru just a day before, took
Axar’s spot in the starting lineup.
“Axar – I’m not sure, he had a small tear,”
Rohit said. “It looks like maybe [unavailable] a week or ten days. We just
have to wait and see how the injury progresses. Because every individual is
different; some guys recover quickly.
“I hope that’s the case with Axar, so we’ll wait
and see what happens with him. Obviously, am not too sure if he’ll be available
to play the first two games at home against Australia. We’ll wait and
see.”