Vijay gets Toed away: Mayank Agarwal will replace injured Vijay Shankar

BIRMINGHAM: A day after he sat out the match against England, India all-rounder Vijay Shankar was on Monday ruled out of the World Cup with a fractured left big toe. Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal who is yet to make his ODI debut will soon join the squad as his replacement and Rishabh Pant is set to continue in the No.4 spot. The ICC’s Event Technical Committee has approved Mayank’s inclusion.

Vijay was struck on his left foot by a Jasprit Bumrah yorker while batting in the nets on June 19 in Southampton. He was able to play in an unrestricted manner in the following two matches against Afghanistan and West Indies.

“Following the match on June 27, the condition of his toe worsened and a CT scan showed he sustained a non-displaced fracture of the left big toe. The condition will require a minimum of three weeks to heal. The injury rules him out of the ongoing World Cup,” a BCCI release said.

“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Mayank as replacement following a request from the Indian team management for a suitable top-order batsman,” the release added.

Top-order batsman Agarwal’s call-up ahead of Ambati Rayudu and Shreyas Iyer has raised fears over KL Rahul’s fitness who spent considerable time off the field the during the England innings after a nasty fall on his back while attempting a catch at the boundary. Though he had returned to open the batting, he was dismissed for a nine-ball duck.

When asked about the uncertainty of India’s No.4 batsman, Rohit Sharma said it was not a worry: “Every team will have one or two or three unsettled players.
That is what it is. The tournament we’ve seen, there has been changes every now and then in each score because of the, first, based on the opposition that the team play and the conditions as well. So there will be one or two changes happening every now and then,” he added.