Aiden Markram, Abhinav Mukund
Credits - Twitter

India opener Abhinav Mukund has been ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing tournament after failing to recover from dengue. The left-handed batsman, who was named the India Red captain, also missed the tournament-opener against India Green due to dengue. Mukund has been replaced by Mumbai’s left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik will continue to lead the side for the rest of the tournament. Karthik had a pretty good game both as a captain and a batsman in the first game where India Red thrashed India Green by 170 runs. The Tamil Nadu star had scored 50 in the first innings and complimented it with an unbeaten knock of 100 in the second innings.

Meanwhile, the absence will also be a big blow for Mukund himself. The left-handed batsman, who made his Test debut way back in 2011, has played only seven Tests so far and is yet to cement his spot in the playing eleven. Six years after making his debut, he was recalled to the Test team earlier this year but failed to justify his selection. After the failures in the Border-Gavaskar series, he was fortunately retained for the Sri Lanka series, but his poor performance in international cricket continued.

He got out for a duck in the warm-up game against Sri Lanka Board President’s XI before managing 12 in the first innings of the first Test. On the other hand, his partner Shikhar Dhawan, who too was making a comeback in the Test team, scored a brilliant century. Mukund went on to score 81 in the second innings but time ran out for him as he made way for KL Rahul in the following Test. With Dhawan and Rahul already proving their worth in Sri Lanka and Murali Vijay is a guaranteed starter in the team, time is running out for Mukund. The southpaw now needs to score really heavily in the upcoming Ranji Trophy to press his claim for a spot in the Test team for the series against Sri Lanka later this year.

Read More  Babar Azam goes to war with Pakistan Cricket Board!! Skips the Army Camp in Kakul

Here is India Red’s updated squad:

Gahlaut Rahul Singh, Priyank Panchal, Sudip Chatterjee, Ishank Jaggi, Dinesh Karthik (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Baba Indrajith, Vijay Gohil, Karn Sharma, Basil Thampi, Ashok Dinda, Chama Milind, Prithvi Shaw, Siddarth Kaul, Akhil Herwadkar

An avid cricket lover, I just love this game more than anything. Writing about cricket keeps me closer to the game.