Rahul Dravid on Thursday confirmed that India was facing multiple injury concerns as captain Rohit Sharma, pacers Deepak Chahar and Kuldeep Sen will miss the third One Day International against Bangladesh on Saturday.
The captain adds to India’s growing injury list with Kuldeep Sen, who missed the match due to stiffness in his back, and fellow quick Deepak Chahar, who bowled just three overs due to a hamstring strain, also ruled out of the series.
Dravid said the Indian skipper will fly back home to seek medical advice for his thumb injury and a call on his availability for Test series that follows will be taken in due course.
“Struggling with a few injuries, which is not ideal, not easy for us,” Dravid told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“Kuldeep and Deepak are out of the series. Rohit will miss the next game, fly back to Mumbai consult with an expert and see how it is and whether he could come back for the Test matches or not, I am not sure. Too early to say anything but he will be out for the next match for sure.”
Sharma batted at number nine with stitches in the hand and hit a valiant 51 not out in his team’s five-run loss to Bangladesh, who took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, in Dhaka.
Following the five-run defeat, captain Rohit Sharma also spoke about the injury concerns in the camp saying, “There are few injury concerns, we need to get to the bottom of this. Need to try and monitor them, because it’s important to understand this. When they come to play for India, they need to be at more than 100 percent. We need to monitor their workload because we can’t have guys coming in to play for the country half-fit.”
“It’s something we have to look at. We have to sit with our team back home at the NCA as well and try and monitor their workload. That is something we need to look at. We can’t afford guys coming in here half-fit and representing the country. There’s huge pride and honour in representing the country and if they’re not fit enough, it’s not ideal. Having said that, we just need to get to the bottom of it and find out what exactly is the reason behind this,” he added.
With inputs from AFP and ESPNCricinfo
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