June 16, 2019
India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli has said that there is
no plan to replace injured player Shikhar Dhawan in the
ICC World Cup 2019. Virat said the team management wanted
the opener’s services in the second half of the tournament’s group stages
and the knockouts.
Dhawan has been rested for nearly two weeks after he was struck in the left
thumb by a rising delivery from Pat Cummins during India’s
second World Cup game against Australia. He has been placed under observation
and the team management has asked Rishabh Pant to fly in as
a cover.
Hopefully, the injury heals quickly and Dhawan will be available for the
latter half of our league games and semi-finals for sure. From that point
of view, we want to hold him back, keep him here. – Virat Kohli,
India cricket captain
Kohli praised Dhawan’s mindset, and said his positive attitude would help
him recover quickly. “He wants to play. I think that kind of mindset will
help in healing the injury as well as he really wants to play”.
No timeline has been set for Dhawan’s recovery as yet. He will be in plaster
for a few weeks after which his condition will be assessed. The injury puts a
question mark over Dhawan’s batting fitness and his ability to field
easily. Throwing won’t be a problem as it is not his dominant hand, said
R Sridhar, India’s fielding coach. What will need to be
looked at is “the impact while fielding and catching, specially is he is a
slip fielder,” said Sridhar.
KL Rahul will now open batting with Rohit
Sharma but who will play at fourth position is unclear. Either
Dinesh Karthik or Vijay Shankar are likely
to replace Dhawan.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/22548
