Ishan Kishan has replaced the injured KL Rahul in India’s squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at The Oval in June. Rahul, the captain of the Lucknow Super Giants, was sidelined for the rest of the IPL and WTC finals with a hamstring injury. A decision on Jaydev Unadkat, who injured his left shoulder while training in the IPL, for the WTC Finals will be made later, according to a statement from the BCCI. He is the second wicketkeeper in India’s WTC squad behind KS Bharat, who made his Test debut against Australia in February this year in the absence of Rishabh Pant. He played six innings in the four Tests for a total of 101 runs with a high score of 44.
As Rahul previously announced on social media, he will now undergo surgery and then report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for rehab.
Rahul’s LSG teammate Unadkat is also injured from the rest of the IPL. He then traveled to Mumbai for scans and visited one of BCCI’s appointed consultants. Umesh Yadav has also been added to the injured list after injuring a hamstring during Kolkata Knight Riders’ game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 26. The fast bowler has not played for KKR since, injured, but has resumed low-intensity bowling. BCCI’s medical team is working with KKR staff to get Umesh fit and is “closely monitoring” his progress. In the absence of Rahul and Shreyas Iyer through injury, Ajinkya Rahane could return to India’s XI after last playing in the Test in January 2022. Former India coach Ravi Shastri had backed Rahane’s addition to the squad and Rahane’s desire to play Ranji Trophy , underlined as one of the most important distinguishing features. Rahane’s return means his county championship debut with Leicestershire is likely to be postponed after initially committing to playing eight Red Ball games and the entire 50-over competition. Cheteshwar Pujara is already in Britain and in superb form, having scored three centuries in four games for Sussex in county cricket. Meanwhile, batsmen Suryakumar Yadav and Ruturaj Gaikwad and seaman Mukesh Kumar have been named as reserve players for the WTC Finals. Among them, only Suryakumar has experience in friendly matches, having made his debut against Australia in Nagpur in February.
India’s squad for the WTC Finals: Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat , Ishan Kishan (Week)
standby player: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav