Dubai September 2 2022: India have named Axar Patel as Ravindra Jadeja’s replacement for the ongoing edition of the Asia Cup in the UAE.
Jadeja sustained a right knee injury and has been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament. The BCCI have named Axar Patel as his replacement.
Patel was one of the reserves named for the tournament and will now act as a like-for-like replacement for the injured Jadeja. Patel has been a decent contributor in T20I cricket, picking up 21 wickets and scoring 147 runs in 25 matches so far.
A press release by the BCCI stated: “The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Axar Patel as the replacement for Ravindra Jadeja in the ongoing Asia Cup. Ravindra Jadeja has sustained a right knee injury and is ruled out of the tournament. He is currently under the supervision of the BCCI medical team.”
The injury to Jadeja though will come as a major blow for India as Jadeja has been in good form both with the bat and the ball during the Asia Cup, making contributions in their two matches so far.
He scored 35 off 29 deliveries against Pakistan and his partnership of 52 with Hardik Pandya was vital in India securing a five-wicket win against their arch-rivals.
He then delivered an economical spell of 1/15 in his four overs against Hong Kong, as India sealed their passage to the the Super Four stage with a 40-run victory.
India will next face the winner of the Pakistan v Hong Kong contest in their first match of the Super Four.
Though no time frame has been delivered on Jadeja’s return, the Indian team management will hope that the all-rounder is back fit and firing sooner rather than later, with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia coming up soon.
India squad for the Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan
