The national selection panel decided to not take a decision in haste on Kedar Jadhav’s participation in the World Cup. Kedar Jadhav is in a race against time to be fit for the all-important tournament after he suffered a shoulder injury. The middle-order batsman suffered the injury during CSK’s last league game in the ongoing IPL and hence was consequently ruled out of the remainder of the competition.
Jadhav suffered a nasty injury while he was fielding near the boundary. Initially, it looked like it is all over for Jadhav but the Indian medical staff is still very optimistic over Jadhav’s availability. On Tuesday, team physio Patrick Farhart assessed Jadhav in Chennai and has advised the batsman to wear a sling for at least a week.
An ICC rule gives India the chance to wait until the last moment. According to the tournament rule, the national selectors get a good period of time at their hands to wait and assess Jadhav’s condition.
All the participating teams can change their World Cup squads till May 23 without any permission from ICC’s technical committee. The MSK Prasad-led selection panel has decided to exploit the rule and give Jadhav ample time to recover and prove his fitness before India’s departure on May 22.
In case Kedar Jadhav fails to recover, the selectors will have to pick one from the standby list which includes the likes of Rishabh Pant, Ambati Rayudu and Axar Patel. Pacers Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini are the two other players in the list.