Indian batter KL Rahul will undergo a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru on September 4, following which he is likely to be cleared to travel to Sri Lanka to join the team for the Asia Cup. Rahul was ruled out of the opening two fixtures of Team India in Kandy as he caught a minor groin niggle recently.
“He (KL) should be fine and is likely to be cleared to travel to Sri Lanka,” a source in the know of developments was quoted in a report by the Times of India (TOI). Meanwhile, as per a recent report, Rahul has been picked in the Indian squad for the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023. The player has been out of action since injuring his hamstring in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 but he continues to be the preferred wicket-keeping choice for the Indian side.
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Three players, namely: Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, and Prasidh Krishna, who are a part of the traveling contingent to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup, have reportedly missed out of the roster for the World Cup.
Why did Samson, Varma, and Krishna miss out?
Mumbai Indians (MI) star Tilak Varma has not debuted in ODIs yet. The fact that he is a left-hander batting in the middle-order added merit to his selection for the Asia Cup. However, Ishan Kishan’s impressive performance against Pakistan on Saturday coupled with KL Rahul’s outstanding numbers at No. 5 perhaps closed the door on Varma’s call-up for the World Cup.
In Krishna’s case, he is only just returning from an injury layoff and had to battle with Thakur for the fourth pacer’s slot. The Mumbai pacer’s additional skills with the bat certainly tilted the scales in his favour. Samson averages an incredible 55.71 in 12 ODI innings but Iyer and Rahul have significantly more experience under their belt and hence beat the Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper to the World Cup squad.
India Squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, (vc), Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav
