Team India has been given another major injury scare; another one to their key fast bowler as Arshdeep Singh missed the third T20I against South Africa due to what Rohit Sharma said were “some issues with his back”!
This could be really concerning for the Indian team and their fans as the Men In Blue have already lost their premier fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, to a back injury. On Monday, the BCCI officially announced that Bumrah has been ruled out of the T20 World Cup because of a back injury.
India currently lead the series 2-0 and the third and last T20I of the series got underway on Tuesday at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore.
Arshdeep Singh’s back injury not serious, says Rohit Sharma
India skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first in Indore. Rohit announced three changes in total.
He said that opener KL Rahul and number 3 batter Virat Kohli had been rested from this dead rubber, and that Arshdeep Singh also misses out due to a back injury. However, Sharma took attention to what the thought of a back injury could do to the fans’ feelings and made it very clear that the issue is not serious and the left-arm pacer is not playing only as they are taking a “precautionary” measure.
“We’re going to field first. It’s a very high scoring ground, I feel the pitch won’t change a lot so nice to know what target is in front of us. Three changes for us, Kohli and KL are out, and Arshdeep misses out for some issues with his back. It is precautionary, nothing serious. We’ve got Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav and Siraj in. We want to keep challenging ourselves, keep improving and keep batting the same way,” Rohit said at the toss.
Replacing these three players, in came Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj – all three playing their first match of the series. Umesh and Siraj are even competing for a spot on the plane to Australia after Bumrah’s injury, while Iyer is already in the reserves for the T20 World Cup.
South Africa (Playing XI): Temba Bavuma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
