CWC 2019: Kedar Jadhav’s World Cup participation under cloud; selectors have a couple of options in mind

Jadhav sustained an injury on his left shoulder during CSK's last league match of the recently concluded IPL season.

Kedar Jadhav | Getty

Kedar Jadhav’s shoulder injury remains to be a cause of concern for Team India ahead of their departure to England for the ICC Cricket World Cup, starting May 30.

As per a report published in CricketNext, the national selectors and the Indian team management are ready to wait till the very last minute to decide whether Jadhav is needed to be replaced in the World Cup squad. However, if he fails to recover on time the selectors have a couple of options in mind as his replacement.

The Men in Blue will depart for UK on May 22 which means Kedar still have a week to regain his full fitness. Report also claims that the middle-order batman’s left shoulder in currently a sling and he is being monitored on a daily basis by team physio Patrick Farhart.

“The BCCI national selectors have been kept apprised of Jadhav’s recovery process on a day-to-day basis. They are keeping a very close eye on his fitness in conjunction with physio Farhart. It’s too early to say whether Jadhav will be fit enough to take part in the tournament but call on that will be taken next week, probably as late as the departure date of the Indian team which is May 22,” a BCCI source informed CricketNext on Wednesday (May 15).

According to International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, teams can name a replacement till May 23.

“The selectors had nominated five standbys to cover all bases. Since Jadhav is a specialist batsman, the selectors are looking at replacing him with either Ambati Rayudu or Axar Patel, who like Jadhav can chip in with a few overs as well.

“The other three standbys are Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini. By naming Pant in India ‘A’ team’s ODI games against West Indies ‘A’ on Tuesday, the selectors have given a clear indication that for now they want the Delhi wicketkeeper to focus on Indian senior team’s West Indies tour which will follow immediately after the World Cup,” the source added.

Kedar Jadhav had injured his shoulder during Chennai Super Kings’ last league match of the recently concluded IPL season against Kings XI Punjab on May 5. Jadhav sustained an injury on his left shoulder while trying to save an overthrow during the 14th over KXIP's innings. He immediately left the field and didn’t comeback for the rest of the match and neither featured in the remaining fixtures of the eventual runners-up.

Jadhav has been struggling with injuries in the past year. He missed IPL 2018 after playing just one match due to a hamstring injury. The right-hander went on to miss India's tour of England last year and suffered a recurrence of the injury on his return to the senior national team during the Asia Cup 2018 in UAE.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 15 May, 2019

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