Shardul Thakur To Replace Bhuvneshwar Kumar For West Indies ODIs

Fast-bowler Shardul Thakur has earned a recall from India’s ODI team for the upcoming three-match ODI series against West Indies. The Mumbai pacer will replace injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the squad. The series will start in Chennai on Sunday. The latest injury would be yet another blow for Bhuvneshwar Kumar who has struggled with his fitness in recent times.

Before playing in the just-concluded three-match T20I series against West Indies, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was out of action for a considerable amount of time. The T20I against West Indies was his first appearance for India since the third ODI against the same team on 14 August. Since then, he missed the Test series against West Indies as well as the home series against South Africa and Bangladesh. After returning from the Caribbeans, he followed a rehabilitation programme at the National Cricket Academy.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar felt discomfort after the third and final T20I against the visitors at the Wankhede on Wednesday night. On reaching Chennai on Thursday afternoon, he informed the team management of pain. According to Sportstar, his groin injury has recurred and thus Shardul Thakur has been recalled.

The news outlet claimed that the selectors were discussing to pick one between Shardul and Umesh Yadav since Navdeep Saini is still far from being match-fit. In the end, they decided to go with Shardul. The pacer, meanwhile, will be the second injury-replacement for the series. Earlier this week, Mayank Agarwal had replaced injured Shikhar Dhawan in the squad.

India’s ODI squad:

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Rishabh Pant, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami.

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