World Cup 2019: ICC Technical Committee approves Rishabh Pant’s inclusion in India’s squad
What’s the story?
The technical committee of the International Cricket Council has given their go-ahead to the Indian team management’s and BCCI’s request to bring in Rishabh Pant to replace Shikhar Dhawan. The BCCI had lodged in an official request on Wednesday after revealing opener Shikhar Dhawan wouldn’t be able to recover till mid-July, effectively ruling him out of India’s sojourn at the World Cup.
In case you didn't know...
The Indian team had called up wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant as a backup after tests on Dhawan’s thumb revealed that he had sustained a fracture after being hit by a Pat Cummins delivery in the ninth over. However, up till now, the wicket-keeper was not named in India’s 15-man squad with the Indian side, banking on Dhawan to get fit by the end of this month.
In a media interaction, India’s team manager Sunil Subramaniam had confirmed that Shikhar Dhawan’s injury was worse than was being earlier fathomed.
“Shikhar Dhawan has a fracture at the base of the first metacarpal of his left hand. He will remain in cast until mid-July which rules him out of ICC World Cup. We have requested Rishabh Pant as the replacement,” Sunil Subramaniam.
IANS reported that Dhawan had undergone a visit to a specialist on Wednesday morning to ascertain the nature of his thumb fracture, following which the team management had decided to take the call.
The heart of the matter
Responding to India’s request, the ICC released a statement confirming that they had given the approval for India to replace Shikhar Dhawan with Rishabh Pant. As per the rules and guidelines of the premier cricketing body, the replacement of any player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee.
The ICC release on its website said:
"The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad. The Event Technical Committee of the ICC World Cup 2019 consists of Geoff Allardice (ICC, ETC chairman), Campbell Jamieson (ICC representative), Steve Elworthy (CWC representative), Alan Fordham (host representative), Harsha Bhogle and Kumar Sangakkara (both independent representatives)."
What’s next?
India are scheduled to play their fifth match of the tournament against Afghanistan on June 22 ahead of what is a hectic week for the Asian giants. KL Rahul should continue to open alongside Rohit Sharma, a role he occupied in India’s previous match against Pakistan where the two had gone onto register a 136-run opening stand.
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