Side strain rules out Rishabh Pant out of NZ ODI series with Dhruv Jurel replacing him in the India squad for the series.
Due to a side strain, Rishabh Pant will not play in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand. The injury was sustained by the India wicketkeeper-batter during practice prior to Sunday’s opening game. His replacement, Dhruv Jurel, has already joined the team in Vadodara.
“Pant felt a sudden onset [of] discomfort in his right lateral abdominal area while batting in the nets during India’s practice session on Saturday afternoon at the BCA Stadium, Vadodara,” a BCCI statement said. “He was taken for MRI scans immediately and the BCCI medical team had a detailed discussion with an expert on his clinical and radiological findings. Pant has been diagnosed with a side strain (oblique muscle tear) and is subsequently ruled out of the ODI series.”
Since KL Rahul is the official ODI wicketkeeper-batter, Pant’s injury has no bearing on India’s first-choice lineup. However, Pant was in the midst of a respectable run of form, leading Delhi to the quarterfinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy while scoring two fifties in six innings.
Rahul will be replaced by Jurel, who has not yet made his ODI debut. He has scored more than fifty runs in his last seven List A innings before joining the team. After scores of 14, 13, 0, and 2 in the Test series against South Africa the previous year, he turned two of those into hundreds for Uttar Pradesh.
In order to prepare for the T20 World Cup, which will take place in India and Sri Lanka in February and March, the teams will play in Rajkot (January 14) and Indore (January 18) before turning their attention to the five-match T20I series in Nagpur (January 21), Raipur (January 23), Guwahati (January 25), Visakhapatnam (January 28), and Thiruvananthapuram (January 31). India’s T20I team does not include Pant or Jurel.