What comes as a big blow to the Indian team, Ravindra Jadeja has reportedly been ruled out of the T20 World Cup 2022 due to a ‘freak injury’. Jadeja suffered the injury midway through the Asia Cup 2022 in UAE. It has now been reported that the all-rounder will not be fit in time for the showpiece event in Australia.
As per a report in the Times of India, Jadeja was asked to undergo some water-based training activity in the ‘backwater’ facility of Team India’s hotel in Dubai. The spin-bowling all-rounder incurred the injury while doing the training.
“He had to balance himself on some kind of a ski-board as part of an adventure activity – not part of the training manual at all. It was absolutely unnecessary. He slipped and twisted his knee badly, which led to a surgery,” sources in the know of developments told TOI.
Considered as one of the pillars in the Indian team, Jadeja’s injury has infuriated many in the BCCI and questions have been raised about whether such an activity was required. Though the board is yet to officially confirm the extent of Jadeja’s injury, it is deemed as a bad one.
“What’s surprising here is, Head Coach Rahul Dravid hasn’t ‘lost his cool’ given how the injury occurred. Ideally, one would have expected Dravid to question this entire process. All said, the bottomline is – India will travel to Australia without Jadeja,” sources added.
With Jadeja out, Axar Patel is expected to fill the void left by him in the team. Patel is a like-for-like replacement for Jadeja and has been in and out of the Indian team over the last year or so. Axar was also named among the reserves in the Indian team and was brought into the main team after Jadeja was ruled out.
