Rahul ruled out injured, Pant to lead

Rishabh Pant. Pic/AFP

India's KL Rahul has been ruled out of the five-match Twenty20 international series against South Africa at home due to a groin injury, the country's cricket board said on Wednesday.

The Indian opener was appointed captain of the team after all-format skipper Rohit Sharma and superstar Virat Kohli took a break following the end of the Indian Premier League tournament last month.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant will lead the side in his place for the series, which begins Thursday in New Delhi.

Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav will also be absent after getting hit on his right hand while batting in the nets, according to a release by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Hardik Pandya, who last month led Gujarat Titans to IPL triumph in their opening season, has been named vice-captain.

"The selection committee has not named a replacement for KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav," the BCCI statement said.

"Both the cricketers will now report to the NCA [National Cricket Academy] where the medical team will assess them further and decide on the future course of treatment."

It is understood that Ruturaj Gaikwad will open the batting alongside Ishan Kishan in the series-opener on Thursday.

Zeroing in on a core group for the upcoming T20 World Cup will be India's main endeavour as they audition a bunch of players, both old and new, in the five T20Is against a strong South African side, starting here on Thursday.

The Men in Blue are on a 12-match winning streak and can create an all-time record of winning 13 T20I games in a row.

However, for head coach Rahul Dravid, the primary aim over the next 10 days will be to narrow down on a core group of players going into the World Cup in

October. And he couldn't have hoped for a better opposition than a gritty South African side which has seen its stock rise recently.

Shreyas Iyer, was terrific at No. 3 against Sri Lanka in February, and could hold on to the spot, in the absence of the injured Suryakumar Yadav. But Deepak Hooda, who has been in fine form, could also be given a chance since he impressed batting in the same position for Lucknow Super Giants. The mercurial Pant and comeback man Dinesh Karthik form an explosive middle order.

"Without giving too much away sometimes, the role that you play for your franchise matches with the role that you play for India, but sometimes you have to play slightly different roles for different teams," Dravid said on Wednesday.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever