The 2019 ICC World Cup kicked off on 30th May and the big final is scheduled to happen on 14th July. 2011 champions India faced South Africa in their first match and posted a convincing win, starting their camping in a steady manner. In their second match, India faced the defending champions Australia and the match was nothing short of a cliffhanger. Batting first, India posted a mammoth total of 352 as opener Shikhar Dhawan scored a blistering century (117). Chasing the big target, Australia fell short by 36 runs as India registered their second win of the tournament.
While scoring the match-winning century, Shikar Dhawan sustained an injury to his thumb while he was batting on 22. Dhawan had gone for a scan on Monday and it was revealed that he has a hairline fracture on his thumb. Following the injury, the team announced that Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of World Cup 2019 for 3 weeks. This news comes as a shocker for the Indian fans as Dhawan is one of the key players in the team and his ability to perform in ICC tournaments is well known.
According to reports, if ruled out for 3 weeks, Shikhar Dhawan will not be able to play India’s upcoming matches against New Zealand, Pakistan, Afghanistan, West Indies and England. Reports also add that Dhawan is likely to be replaced by Shreyas Iyer or Rishabh Pant in the Indian team. Notably, Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu are the two back up players hinted by the BCCI when they announced the World Cup squad.
As of now, KL Rahul is expected to be moved up the order to open the batting and Dinesh Karthik or Vijay Shankar is likely to fill Rahul's slot in the middle order. Let's hope Dhawan makes a quick recovery and gets back when India steps into the knockout stages, if everything goes by plan.
