After having sustained an acute back injury, all-rounder Hardik Pandya was ruled out of the rest of the Asia Cup and he will be replaced by Rajasthan seamer Deepak Chahar. The Rajasthan seamer is expected to land in Dubai — the venue of India’s matches in Asia Cup — on Thursday evening, according to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Pandya’s injury looked serious on Wednesday itself when he had to be stretchered off the field after he fell on his back during India’s group League match against arch-rivals Pakistan.
It was in the 18th over in the Pakistan innings when Pandya suffered the injury while bowling the fifth ball of his fifth over. During the follow through after his fifth ball, the all-rounder felt excruciating pain and had to be taken off immediately. He was later taken for medical attention which ruled him out for the rest of the tourney. Later, the BCCI confirmed through a tweet that Pandya was suffering from an acute lower back injury.
Apart from Pandya, there are two more injury-forced changes in the team with left-arm spinner Axar Patel and medium-pacer Shardul Thakur will be replaced by Ravindra Jadeja and Siddharth Kaul, respectively. Patel has tendon tear on the left index finger while Thakur had a right hip and groin soreness in the match against Hong Kong. He won’t be further available for India in the ongoing Asia Cup.
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