If reports are to be believed, then India opener and vice-captain KL Rahul might miss the upcoming rescheduled fifth Test on the upcoming tour of England after suffering a groin injury recently. He had to give the South Africa T20I series at home a miss due to the same reason.
India is supposed to play the one-off Test from July 1-5, apart from three ODIs and three T20Is on their tour of England. Before this, India will also play two T20Is against Ireland.
After regular captain Rohit Sharma was rested along with other Test first-choice players, BCCI named KL Rahul captain for the five T20Is against South Africa. However, he suffered a groin injury on the eve of the first match which was played in Delhi and was pulled out from the entire series.
In his stead, Rishabh Pant was named the captain of the Indian team, and Rahul was asked to report to NCA for further diagnosis. Along with him, spinner Kuldeep Yadav was also withdrawn from the T20Is, after he hurt his hand while batting in nets and reported at the NCA as well.
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The BCCI recently put out a statement saying, "Team India Captain KL Rahul has been ruled out of the T20I series against South Africa owing to a right groin injury while Kuldeep Yadav will miss out in the T20I series after getting hit on his right hand while batting in the nets last evening."
Now Cricbuzz has reported that KL Rahul’s participation in the England series is doubtful but could not clarify if he will have to skip the white ball games as well. This is because after reporting to the NCA for his injury, the diagnosis of his complaint is not complete yet.
The first batch of the Indian team will fly to England on Friday (June 16) and another batch, including coach Rahul Dravid, Pant, and Shreyas Iyer, on June 20.
The report also mentioned that the selection committee might not name a replacement for Rahul for the Test match, as India has a backup in Shubman Gill, who could open with Rohit Sharma. However, the team management can ask for another backup possibly Mayank Agarwal.
India's Test squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna
(Cricbuzz inputs)
