India lose key player to injury for third Test against England
India will be without KL Rahul for the third Test against England in Rajkot.
In a major blow for India, middle-order batter KL Rahul has been ruled out for the third Test match against England in Rajkot.
Rahul, who played the first Test, had missed the second one with a quadriceps injury. While he was named in the squad for the last three Tests, his selection, like that of Ravindra Jadeja, was subject to fitness clearance from the BCCI medical team.
The BCCI confirmed in their release that Rahul has reached only "90% match fitness and will continue his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to be completely match-fit for the fourth and fifth Test."
With three scores of over 50 and an average of 75, KL Rahul enjoyed a prosperous World Cup.
Karnataka batter Devdutt Padikkal has been named as Rahul's replacement.
India have already been hit in the batting department with the absence of key players. While Virat Kohli is absent for personal reasons, Shreyas Iyer was ignored from the team for the last three Tests.
Rajat Patidar had subsequently made his Test debut in Vizag, and will likely retain his place in the XI for the third Test.
Padikkal has been in good form for India A and Karnataka and could potentially make his debut in the series.
Ravindra Jadeja bowled an absolute beauty to beat Steve Smith's defence in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup clash between India and Australia in Chennai.
India squad for third Test: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal