Injured Sehwag to miss World Twenty20
Dynamic India opener Virender Sehwag will miss the World Twenty20 with a shoulder injury, but on current form his replacement, Murali Vijay, should have no problem filling the hole his absence might have otherwise left in the side.
Sehwag had been in fine form for the Delhi Daredevils during the IPL, accumulating 356 runs in the 14 matches of the regular season.
Despite the 31-year-old not missing an IPL match, a BCCI statement has now said the batsman has “sustained a shoulder injury and been advised to rest for three to four weeks”.
With World Twenty20 set to begin on April 30th, that timeframe rules Sehwag out of contention and has now been replaced in India’s 15-man squad by the in-form Vijay.
Vijay was second on the Chennai Super Kings’ list of run accumulators in the IPL this season, racking up 417 runs at an average of 37.90. The 26-year-old’s explosive 127 from just 56 balls against the Rajasthan Royals on April 3rd was also the highest score made by any batsman in the IPL this season.
They are statistics that make the opener an obvious choice to fill Sehwag’s shoes, and indeed, they are figures that were the 15-man World Cup squads named a little later, should have secured Vijay a trip to the Caribbean regardless of Sehwag’s injury troubles.
In addition to approving India’s injury substitution for Sehwag, the ICC has also approved two changes to Pakistan’s World Cup squad as they look to defend the title won in England last summer.
The PCB had ruled Umar Gul and Yasir Arafat unfit to play in the competition and the pair have been replaced by Mohammad Sami and Abdur Rehman.
Gul has been Pakistan's most successful bowler in the Twenty20 format but a shoulder injury will keep the paceman out of the Caribbean tournament, while Yasir will miss the World Twenty20 with a calf problem.
Sami, who has played 34 Tests and 83 ODIs for his country, is yet to represent Pakistan in a Twenty20 International, while it has been more than two years since Rehman has pulled on the Pakistan uniform in a Twenty20 match.
Bangladesh will no doubt be crossing fingers and toes that they won’t need to seek a replacement for batsman Tamim Iqbal for the competition after MRI scans revealed he had suffered a fractured wrist when an existing problem was aggravated in a domestic cricket match last week. Tamim’s World Twenty20 fate is expected to be known within the next few days.
Australia too are sweating in the fitness of strike bowler Brett Lee, who had been named in their 15-man squad after recovering from the elbow surgery he had late last year. The lightning fast bowler made his return to cricket for the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL after spending his Australian summer watching from the sidelines.
The 33-year-old played just four matches for Punjab, and failed to pick up a solitary wicket, before a broken thumb forced him out of the remainder of the competition. Whether Lee can recover from this latest setback in time for the World Twenty20 remains to be seen.
The news from the South Africa camp is better with captain Graeme Smith last week given the all-clear to resume training after recovering from the finger injury he sustained in a fielding incident while playing for the Rajasthan Royals in the early stages of this year’s IPL.
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