Reports: Injured KL Rahul doubtful for one-off Test match against England

India’s vice-captain KL Rahul’s participation in the one-off Test match against England in the first week of July seems to be in doubt as the batter is struggling with groin injury, which also ruled him out of the ongoing five-match T20I series against South Africa where the Men in Blue are already trailing 0-2.

With key players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah being rested as a part of their workload management, KL Rahul was handed over the captaincy for the T20I series.

However, after the injury wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was handed over the captaincy of Indian Team.

KL Rahul undergoing rehabilitation at NCA

Meanwhile, KL Rahul is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and as of now, it is unclear as to how long he will be out off the field.

According to reports in Cricbuzz, “it is learnt that diagnosis of his complaint is not complete yet. Sources have indicated that his participation in the England series is doubtful but could not clarify if he will have to skip the white ball games as well.”

Meanwhile, the Indian team will fly for England in two groups. “The first batch of the Indian team will fly to England on Friday (June 16) and another batch, including coach Rahul Dravid, Pant and Shreyas Iyer, on June 20,” stated the report further.

This is the rescheduled fifth and final Test match which was postponed due to COVID-19 cases in the Indian camp last year. Notably, India lead the inconclusive series 2-1.

It has also been reported that the selection committee might not name a replacement player for KL Rahul with three openers already included in the officially announced 17-member squad. (KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Shubhman Gill)

Indian squad for the one-off Test match against England:

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna