Injuries Give India Massive Blow before Super 4 Stage

The Men in Blue have started their Asia Cup journey in an incredible way as they won all of their group games and progressed to the Super 4 stage.

Cricket news: India is set to face Bangladesh in their first match of the Super 4 stage

India were given an initial scare by Hong Kong, but they managed to brush aside Anshuman Rath and Co. by 26 runs and then went on to win against their arch-rivals Pakistan by eight wickets in the same venue of Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Pakistan were bundled up for 162 runs while India’s skipper Rohit Sharma’s quick-fire half-century eased the chase as they finished it with 21 overs to spare.

There were handful contributions from the middle order as Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu played their part superbly.

However the team has been handed a massive blow as reports from ABP News suggested that pacer Shardul Thakur and spinner Axar Patel has been ruled out of the tournament due to injuries.

Shardul has suffered a groin injury while Axar has hurt his thumb. Siddarth Kaul and Ravindra Jadeja has been named in place of the injured players.

Shardul was included in the first match against Hong Kong, but he was taken apart by openers Rath and Nizakat Khan and ended with figures of 4-0-41-0.

Axar had performed impressively in his maiden county stint for Durham and was therefore included in the Asia Cup squad, but now he has to wait a little longer to make his comeback to the team.

Apart from these two players, all-rounder Hardik Pandya has also been ruled out of the tournament as he suffered from an acute lower back injury in the match against Pakistan.

During his run-up he collapsed on the ground and was taken off the park in a stretcher. Deepak Chahar, who made his debut in the T20 series against England, has been called up as a replacement.

India will kick off their Super 4 stage journey on Friday where they will face Bangladesh and the match will be played in Dubai itself.