Rahul ruled out of England tour; to seek treatment for groin injury in Germany

It’s official: star Indian batter KL Rahul will not only miss the T20I series against South Africa but has also been ruled out of the upcoming England tour.

Rahul had suffered an injury to his right groin last week.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah said on Thursday (June 16) that Rahul will get his treatment in Germany and will leave for the procedure by the end of June.

Rahul was earlier named captain for the 5 T20Is against the Proteas at home. In his absence, the responsibility was handed over to Rishabh Pant.

Earlier, Rahul was named vice-captain under Rohit Sharma for the Edgbaston Test but now, the Indian selection committee will have to name another deputy in place of Rahul.

Rahul may not be replaced by anyone else at the last moment, but a vice-captain will be named from the existing squad.

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This time, K L Rahul captained the new IPL team, Lucknow Super Giants. He was in top form, scoring 616 runs at an average of 51.33 and a strike rate of 135.38. He was the second-highest run-scorer of IPL this time. The Lucknow team made it to the playoffs, beating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), mainly because of Rahul’s high-quality performance.

Hardik Pandya is likely to captain the white-ball squad in England as Rishabh Pant, who is currently leading the T20 side, will join the Indian Test squad in UK only after the South Africa series.

Hardik in line for captaincy in Ireland. It has been decided that Pant will not be playing the two T20 Internationals against Ireland and hence Hardik, who is his deputy for the South Africa series, is expected to lead the side.

“While there is Dinesh Karthik, who is the senior-most player in the squad along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it was Hardik, who was Pant’s designated deputy and hence favourite to lead,” a BCCI official said.

In Pant’s absence, India have two keepers in Ishan Kishan and Karthik in the squad.

There won’t be too many changes to the squad that is currently playing against South Africa and hence chances of Mohsin Khan or Rahul Tripathi look dim.