In a big blow to the Indian cricket team, opener Shikar Dhawan on Tuesday was ruled out of the Indian ICC World Cup campaign owing to a thumb injury. The move comes at a crucial time as Dhawan recently slammed a century against Australia in India’s second match of the tournament. In the matches held previously, he had scored 8 and 117 runs respectively against South Africa and Australia.
He was injured during the India-Australia match after being hit on the thumb by a rising delivery from pacer Nathan Coulter- Nile. Even though he looked in considerable pain, he continued to bat and went on to score 117 off 109 balls. After the match, he had to undergo precautionary tests which include X-Ray that confirmed the fracture. It came as a huge jolt for Team India ahead of their next game against New Zealand at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
According to the reports, the injury will keep Dhawan sidelined at least for the next three weeks which means he will miss out India’s crucial match against Pakistan on June 16th at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.
KL Rahul is most likely to open the innings with Rohit Sharma as Dhawan was ruled out for the next few games.
