Asia Cup 2018: Two replacements for Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya was carried off on a stretcher after suffering a drastic back injury during the group stage match against Pakistan on Wednesday. The incident took place in the 18th over when Pandya in his follow-through missed his footing. He was into his 5th over and as he bowled the 5th delivery of the over Pandya felt his back and lay on the ground in immense pain. Injured Pandya was surrounded by his teammates and Pakistani batsmen Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik and was attended by the Indian team physio but was unable to get up.
Because of the injury Pandya has been ruled out of the ongoing Asia Cup and is replaced by Deepak Chahar who joined the team yesterday. Other than Pandya, left-arm spinner Axar Patel and seamer Shardul Thakur also suffered injuries and have been replaced by Siddharth Kaul and Ravindra Jadeja respectively for the ongoing Asia Cup. Axar Patel injured his index finger during the match against Pakistan and Thakur experienced hip and groin soreness.
Pandya was the only official all-rounder in the Indian team and after his injury his spot is vacant. There are two adept players who are suitable for filling Pandya's place.
Ravindra Jadeja
Ravindra Jadeja who is fondly known as 'Sir' Jadeja recently returned in team India for the last test match against England and his performance was something that all Indian fans have missed for a long time. Jadeja picked up 7 wickets in the match and scored a total of 99 runs. He is currently the no. 2 all-rounder in Tests.
Till date, Ravindra Jadeja has played 136 ODI matches for India and has 155 wickets and 1914 runs in his cart. There is a good chance that the all-rounder directly replaces Hardik Pandya into the starting eleven. Jadeja can be counted as a very good fifth bowling option as well as a lower order batsman who can also be a good finisher for India. Moreover, his fielding is perhaps his best attribute and he will surely bring great energy into the site.
Deepak Chahar
Deepak Chahar who plays for Rajasthan in domestic cricket came into recognition after routing Hyderabad for 21, the lowest ever total in Indian domestic cricket. It was his debut match and he nailed 8 wickets in that match. He has played 35 matches in first-class cricket with an account of 105 wickets. He was also part of the IPL winning CSK team.
His recent performances have been exceptionally good, be that in India 'A' Quadrangular Series or in India 'A' tri-series in England. In the recent tri-series in England, Chahar was part of India 'A' squad. He got 10 wickets at an economy rate of 4.56 in four games that he played which also includes a five-wicket haul. Upon adding the two practice matches also, he has a total of 16 wickets in 6 games.
He can be the perfect replacement for Hardik Pandya as he has excellent power hitting ability which he demonstrated in IPL 2018.