Team India continues to get ravaged by injuries as KL Rahul is the latest member of the Indian team that has been ruled out from the WTC Final 2023.
India first lost the services of two of their first-choice players – fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah to a back injury and wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant to knee injuries sustained in a car accident. This followed the back injury of Shreyas Iyer, who also was ruled out of the WTC Final 2023 against Australia.
Now, it is KL Rahul, who was expected to take the middle-order position voided by Iyer but now will miss the marquee event due to a thigh injury he picked up during the IPL 2023.
India and Australia will meet in the WTC Final 2023 from June 7 at The Oval.
Who will take KL Rahul’s position in the middle-order in WTC Final?
After KL Rahul’s injury, it seems like Ajinkya Rahane will directly slot in at his previous position of number 5 for the WTC Final 2023.
The BCCI selectors will soon announce a replacement of KL Rahul, who also doubled up as a back-up keeper to KS Bharat. This means that the selectors are likely to name a back-up keeper as KL Rahul’s injury replacement. For this one-off Test, and to be the back-up keeper, the selectors could tilt to bring back Wriddhiman Saha for a single Test match.
Coming back to the playing India’s playing XI for the WTC Final, the top 7 now seems expected with Gill, Rohit, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, KS Bharat, and Jadeja. Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj are two confirmed pacers.
To partner Siraj and Shami, the management are now likely to pick Umesh Yadav given Jaydev Unadkat suffered a shoulder injury in the nets in the IPL. Shardul Thakur is the pace-bowling all-rounder in the squad. And while Thakur offers a bit of batting depth, his bowling is really unreliable. And with Umesh also likely to be in the side, another pacer who could be expensive, India will be tempted to pick R Ashwin and make it a 3 pace and 2 spin attack.
India’s probable XI for WTC Final 2023 vs Australia:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav
Here is India’s squad for WTC final:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat
Australia’s squad for WTC final 2023:
Pat Cummins (Captain), Steve Smith (VC), David Warner, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Harris, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh, Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, and Todd Murphy
