The Indian team celebrated their 500th Test with a huge win over New Zealand in the first Test at Kanpur. The hosts thrashed the Kiwis by 197 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match Test series. However, India’s mammoth win has somewhat turned sour after their in-form batsman KL Rahul was injured while batting in the second innings. The Indian opener injured his leg while trying to reverse sweep Mark Craig. At first, it looked nothing serious as he continued to bat but now there are some worrying signs for the home team as he did not take the field during the final innings of the match.
Maybe it was just a precautionary measure as there has no official confirmation yet about the injury. But what happened after the conclusion of the match is an indication that the Indian team is gearing up to bring another batsman if Rahul is ruled out from the next Test. Indian coach Anil Kumble was seen bowling few deliveries to another opener Shikhar Dhawan. Former Indian opener Akash Chopra uploaded the video of the practice session on his Instagram account.
Rahul, who has been in terrific form, was playing his first Test at home. With the scored of 32 and 38, he got the starts in both the innings but could not convert them into big ones. His absence will be a big loss for the team who are already missing their pace spearhead Ishant Sharma.
If Rahul is ruled out then it is expected that Dhawan will replace him in the playing him. However, it will be interesting to see whether the selectors consider out of favour opener Gautam Gambhir or not. Looking at the current form, Gambhir will easily get the nod ahead of Dhawan but it is highly unlikely that the team management will disturb the winning squad.