Rohit Sharma ruled out of India vs Bangladesh 2nd Test: Details
India captain Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the second Test against Bangladesh after failing to recover from a thumb injury.
In his absence, stand-in skipper KL Rahul will continue to lead in the second and final game, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka.
Along with Rohit, fast bowler Navdeep Saini was also ruled out of the second Test owing to an abdominal muscle strain, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Tuesday.
The Indian skipper, who is currently in Mumbai, suffered an injury to his left thumb during the second One-Day International (ODI) between India and Bangladesh in Dhaka.
"The Medical Team is of the opinion that the injury needs some more time to heal completely before the Indian captain can bat and field with full intensity. He will continue his rehab and will not be available for the second and final Test against Bangladesh," read BCCI's statement.
Saini, meanwhile, will now report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for further management of his injury, the statement further read.
It is believed that Rohit would have managed to bat through the Test but concerns remained over the risk involved while fielding.
Rohit last played in Tests during India's two-match series at home against Sri Lanka earlier this year in March. The Indian team won both games that were played in Mohali and Bengaluru. In the three innings he batted in, Rohit did not score a single half-century and managed 90 runs.
India's updated squad for 2nd Test against Bangladesh: KL Rahul (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Saurabh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat
India thrashed Bangladesh by 188 runs in the first Test last week in Chattogram. Kuldeep Yadav, who picked up eight wickets, was named the Player of the Match, while the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill scored a century each.
The win marked KL Rahul's first victory as India's captain on his second attempt. He had previously led the team in the Johannesburg Test against South Africa earlier this year. India lost the match by seven wickets. The right-handed batter has also captained India in seven ODIs, of which India have won four - three against Zimbabwe and one against Bangladesh.
Reflecting on his first Test win as captain, Rahul said that he was delighted to have a Test victory as India's captain.
"Feels good now that the game is over that I have a victory as a captain. I would have wanted my first game (as captain) to also start off with a win, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. Happy that we played good cricket. To get this win was really important for us. Like anyone else, the first victory is sweet and happy and hopefully, we can build on this. The focus will be on the next game now and trying to win the series," said Rahul in a video posted by BCCI TV.