On the eve of their first warm-up match of the World Cup, India have been hit by an injury scare with allrounder Vijay Shankar leaving the training session midway after being hit on his right hand. Vijay was hit on the forearm while attempting a pull against left-arm fast bowler Khaleel Ahmed, who is one of the four fast men travelling with the Indian squad as net bowlers.
Vijay, who was part of the second group of batsmen alongside MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya, walked back immediately to the dressing room with a support staff member carrying his bat and helmets. There is no word yet from the BCCI on whether Vijay would need any scans and whether he would be available for the warm-up against New Zealand on Saturday.
India would hope Vijay’s injury is not serious considering Kedar Jadhav is yet to hit peak intensity in the training. Jadhav, who picked a left shoulder injury on May 5 during the IPL, was retained in the 15-man squad by the selectors based on a positive assessment by team physiotherapist Patrick Farhart.
Friday was the second training session for the Indians at the Oval, and both days Jadhav started with light drills with Farhart following him like a shadow. On Thursday, Jadhav mainly took some throwdowns without batting in the main nets. However, today, he did the complete drill including some fielding practice before wrapping it by batting in the nets.
Keeping the nature of the injury as well as tomorrow’s match Jadhav is likely to sit out. In case Vijay is fit to play, he should bat No. 4, the position, MSK Prasad, Indian chairman of selectors, had said he was ideal for while announce the World Cup squad.
In case Vijay does not play, then it is likely that KL Rahul would replace him. Rahul, who was part of the last batch of batsmen in today’s training session, was included mainly as the cover for the openers, but Prasad said he was equally capable of playing in the middle order.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo