India all-rounder Hardik Pandya will miss the remainder of the ongoing Cricket World Cup due to an ankle injury, confirmend the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Saturday.
Hardik twisted his ankle during India’s victory over Bangladesh in Pune on October 19 and suffered a with a ligament tear meaning he did not feature for the hosts during their matches against New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka.
Fast bowler Prasidh Krishna has been called up to the Indian squad, after being given approval from the ICC’s Event Technical Committee, as a replacement and will be available for selection from Sunday 5 November.
An ICC statement read: “India’s unbeaten start to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup has received a massive hit with news that star all-rounder Hardik Pandya has failed to recover from his ankle injury and will miss the remainder of the tournament.
“His place in India’s squad will be taken by Prasidh Krishna, with the inexperienced fast bowler parachuted into the playing group after being approved by the tournament’s Event Technical Committee on Saturday.”
India sit at the top of the points table with seven wins in seven matches and take on second-placed South Africa on Sunday.
Head coach Rahul Dravid explained the reasoning behind replacing a prominent all-rounder with an inexperienced quick bowler in Krishna.
India’s Prasidh Krishna has been brought into the squad to replace Hardik Pandya— (AP)
“Think it’s a pretty obvious thought process.” he said in a press conference ahead of India’s crucial World Cup match against South Africa today.
“After Hardik has been injured, which he has been for the last two or three games, and then obviously didn’t play a couple of the games in the Australia series as well.
“We have played with a combination which has been three fast bowlers and two spinners. And yeah, in our reserves, in the guys sitting outside in the 15, we had a backup for the spin. We had a backup for the spin, we had a backup for the batting, and we had a backup in the bowling all around the category.
“So, we did recognize that if this is a combination we’re going to take, and if there is an issue of an illness, or a small niggle, or an injury, then we need to have a backup for that. It also allows us to play other combinations. It doesn’t mean that we can’t play other combinations. But if this is the one combination that which we have gone with recently, then yeah, that is the one area which we possibly hadn’t backed up with the injury to Hardik Pandya.”
28-year-old Krishna played 17 ODIs for India taking 29 wickets at an economy of 5.60. His last appearance for India came against Australia in a bilateral ODI series just ahead of the World Cup, where he dismissed David Warner and went for 45 runs off his 9 overs.
