Shikhar Dhawan, the left-handed Indian opener, has been ruled out of the upcoming T20I series against West Indies.
Dhawan suffered a deep cut on his left knee during a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game against Maharashtra in Surat on November 21.
The BCCI’s medical staff assessed the southpaw on Tuesday to know about the status of his injury. The doctors’ have suggested that Dhawan needs some more time for his stitches to come off and his wound to heal completely.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Sanju Samson as Dhawan’s replacement for the Windies T20Is.
The Kerala batsman was a baffling omission from the original squad picked by the MSK Prasad-led panel. Samson was a part of the T20I squad for India’s last T20I assignment, which was against Bangladesh earlier this month. But despite warming the bench in all the three games, he was surprisingly dropped from the squad for the upcoming series.
It would now be interesting to say whether he gets a chance in the playing XI or not. He will be competing with Manish Pandey for a spot in the playing XI. Meanwhile, KL Rahul is set to open with Rohit Sharma in the absence of Dhawan.
India’s squad for three T20Is against West Indies:
Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sanju Samson.
