Indian cricket team faced a major blow ahead of the New Zealand tour as opener Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the five-match T20I series commencing from January 24. Dhawan had picked up a shoulder injury during the third and final ODI against Australia at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Sunday. Dhawan did not fly with Team India to Auckland on Monday.
Sanju Samson, Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw who recently scored a 100-ball 150 for India A in New Zealand are in contention to replace him on the tour as an opener.
The left-handed batsman was taken for an x-ray after he hurt his left shoulder while fielding. He was taken off the field in the fifth over of the game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium where he had dived to save an Aaron Finch shot in the cover region and hurting his shoulder in the process.
In his absence, KL Rahul opened the innings and scored 19 runs before losing his wicket to Ashton Agar in run chase of 287 in the decider.
The 34-year-old had also not taken the field for the entire duration of the Australian innings in the second ODI after a short ball from Pat Cummins hit him on the rib cage while batting. Despite the injury, Dhawan carried on and scored 96 runs, his second half-century on the trot.
