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Team India suffered a big blow after an ankle injury ruled out star all-rounder Hardik Pandya from the ongoing 2023 Cricket World Cup on Saturday.
The development was confirmed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport's global governing body, amid rising speculation over Hardik Pandya's recovery timeline in the past few days.
“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,” the ICC's statement read.
Prasidh Krishna will replace Hardik Pandya in the Rohit Sharma-led side after the ICC's technical committee approved his name for inclusion in the home team's 15-member squad for the prestigious 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,” the statement added.
The Mumbai Indians all-rounder twisted his ankle earlier in the ICC World Cup in Pune, where the Men in Blue beat Bangladesh on October 19.
He missed India's subsequent games against New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka.
The absence of Hardik Pandya from the World Cup is a massive setback for Team India, considering there's no like-for-like replacement of him in the squad.
India head coach Rahul Dravid acknowledged that Hardik Pandya's unavailability hurts the balance of the team.
“Obviously, the sixth option is something that Hardik gave us. But we have been playing the last four games without the sixth bowling option,” Rahul Dravid said on the eve of India's World Cup fixture against South Africa on Sunday.
“We also played a couple of games in the Australia series before the World Cup without the sixth option. We won two of our games, in Mohali and Indore, when we played only with five bowling options.”
“So, we have responded really well to that challenge. Yes, of course, we probably won't have that sixth bowling option in these games. But the response of the team and the players has been really good when we have not had it. I think we have played enough games without having it,” Rahul Dravid added.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra shared similar sentiments. He termed the news related to Hardik Pandya a “big blow” to the Rohit Sharma-led team.
“Hardik Pandya ruled out of the World Cup. Big blow to the possibilities of having a sixth bowling option. India’s picked pacer Prasidh Krishna to replace him. Says a lot about how many players of Hardik's skill-set are available in India. Answer is 0,” Aakash Chopra posted on Twitter, now X.
On the other hand, ex-India speedster Irfan Pathan emphasized that Hardik Pandya's omission from the World Cup would not have much impact on India's World Cup campaign.
“It's a big blow for Hardik individually, but the team hasn't felt his absence much. Other teams, unlike India, haven't developed their bench strength and have faced challenges,” Irfan Pathan said.
“The selectors, team management, coach Rahul Dravid, and captain Rohit Sharma have built an impressive bench strength. When one player is replaced by another, there's confidence that the replacement is equally capable. There's no doubt about their performance,” he explained.
India's Updated Squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
