Dubai 2 Sep : The All-India Senior Selection Committee has chosen left-arm spinner and all-rounder Axar Patel as a comparable alternative to injured all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for the rest of India’s tournament in the ongoing Asia Cup in the UAE.Jadeja was part of the team in India’s two group A match against Pakistan and Hong Kong in Dubai.In the game against Pakistan after a score of losing 0/11 with 2 overs of left-arm spin he was moved to the fourth spot and scored an important 35 off just 29 balls.He also played a stand of 52 runs with Hardik Pandya (33 not out of 17 balls) to send India at home in the chase of 148.
Although Jadeja was not able to bat against Hong Kong, he had impressive numbers of 1/15 in his four overs, at an economy rate of 3.75 effectively putting brakes to the scoring rate in defense of 192.
“Jadeja has suffered an injury to his right knee and is out of the tournament.He is under the watchful eye of the BCCI medical team.
The replacement for him, Axar Patel was named earlier as one of the standbys in the squad and is expected to become part of the squad in Dubai in the near future,” said the BCCI in an official statement.
This isn’t the first time in the past year that Jadeja has been plagued by an injury to his right knee.
Similar injuries forced him to not playing in India’s ODI phase of the tour of the West Indies in July, with Patel playing in all three games as a replacement for Jadeja.In the 25 T20Is, Patel has scored 147 runs, and picked 21 wickets.
After winning the Group A in Asia Cup 2022 by winning matches against Pakistan and Hong Kong, India have made it into the Super Four stage and are scheduled to play their next game on Sunday.
India’s team for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (captain), K.L Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan
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