KL Rahul ruled out of third Test, Devdutt Padikkal named replacement

Rajkot (Gujarat) [India]: KL Rahul, whose availability for the remaining three Tests was subject to fitness, has been ruled out of the third Test against England in Rajkot.

Rahul has reached 90 per cent of match fitness and is progressing well under the supervision of the BCCI Medical Team.
He will continue his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to be completely match-fit for the fourth and fifth Test.

The men’s selection committee named Devdutt Padikkal as KL Rahul’s replacement for the third Test, starting Thursday.

After a few scans, it became clear that the 31-year-old wasn’t fully fit for which he had to miss the second Test match against England in Visakhapatnam.

With former India batter Virat Kohli not available for the remaining three Test matches, Rahul’s injury is a blow for the Indian side in the tightly contested series.

Earlier on Saturday, while announcing the squad for the last three matches of the Test series against England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul’s participation depended on fitness clearance from the medical team.

India’s updated Squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal.