India vs New Zealand: Shreyas Iyer out of ODI series with injury; BCCI names replacement

India batsman Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of their upcoming One-Day International (ODI) series against New Zealand.

Shreyas, who has suffered a back injury, will head to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for further assessment and management, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed in a press release on Tuesday.

The news broke on the eve of the first ODI between India and New Zealand in Hyderabad.

Madhya Pradesh batsman Rajat Patidar was named as Shreyas' replacement for the three-match ODI series at home against the BlackCaps. While this was not Patidar's maiden India call-up, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter is yet to make his international debut. In 51 List A games, Patidar has scored 1,648 runs at an average of 34.33, including eight fifties and three centuries.

Shreyas, on the other hand, has been playing ODIs since 2017. In 42 ODIs, Shreyas has scored 1,631 runs at a fine average of 46.60, including 14 half-centuries and two hundreds.

India would hope Shreyas' injury is not serious, considering their upcoming home series against Australia and the 50-over World Cup later in October-November. The team has already suffered from ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah's back injury that has kept the bowler out of action since September 2022.

Meanwhile, India are already without their middle-order batsman KL Rahul who has decided to skip the series against the Kiwis due to personal reasons. In his absence, Hardik Pandya has been named Rohit Sharma's deputy in the three-match ODI series.

Team India recently clean swept Sri Lanka 3-0 in the ODIs and 2-1 in the T20I series.

The opening ODI against New Zealand is on Wednesday at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. The second ODI is at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur and the third and final ODI at Indore's Holkar Stadium on Jan. 24. Following this, India and New Zealand will lock horns in a three-match T20I series, starting from Jan. 27 in Ranchi. The second and third T20I is on Jan. 29 and Feb. 1 in Lucknow and Ahmedabad respectively.

India's updated ODI squad against New Zealand: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Rajat Patidar, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik.