Injured pacer and the spearhead of Indian bowling attack Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the World Cup 2015 owing to a knee injury. “It’s confirmed that Ishant has been ruled out and will not recover in time to play the World Cup. As per regulations, we had Mohit Sharma as stand-by and he will be inducted into the World Cup squad. Ishant is likely to return home,” a top BCCI source told PTI on Saturday.
This injury kept Ishant away from competitive cricket for more than a month. He last bowled in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in December before he was picked for the Australia Day ODI in Sydney which was abandoned due to rain. This was the only match he was picked for, in the tri-series.
Mohit Sharma, who is travelling with the team, is likely to take his place in the side, subject to approval of ICC’s event technical committee. However, the authorities have rather positive news on Rohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja. “I will be playing the warm-ups and am good to go. I had issues with my hamstring but over the past few days I have been working on it and recovered well thanks to the medical staff. Injuries are part of the game and out of your control. What I can control is my confidence and preparations ahead of the World Cup”, said Rohit Sharma, at a media interaction in Adelaide.
We can only hope that no other injuries disrupt the Indian attack and India enters the competition all guns blazing.
