New Delhi:
After being absent for the last few games against Sri Lanka, due to his mother’s health issues, Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan shall be missing the first three ODIs against Australia as his wife is unwell and the batsman wants to be next to her. The BCCI has decided to not name a replacement for the batsman as the squad already had 16 players.
The BCCI statement read: “Team India opener Shikhar Dhawan has requested to be released from the team for the first three ODIs of the Paytm Australia tour of India, 2017 to attend to his wife, who is unwell. The All-India Senior Selection Committee has decided not to name any replacement for Dhawan in Indian Cricket Team.”
Earlier, during the Sri Lanka series, BCCI had sent a statement which read: “Shikhar Dhawan would be leaving for India tomorrow i.e. September 3rd to see his ailing mother. Dhawan’s mother is stable and is recovering well at the moment.
"The All-India Senior Selection Committee has decided not to name any replacement for the 5th ODI and the only T20I, scheduled on September 3rd and 6th respectively in Colombo."
Ahead of the start of the first ODI against Sri Lanka, Kohli had said that Rahane remained in the set-up and was the third choice opener in the limited-over format of the game for India. And in Dhawan's absence, Rahane was set to play his first match of the five-match ODI series.
"Shikhar Dhawan came and got the golden bat in the Champions Trophy and then he has won us two Test matches with the bat. So he is an impact player and we all know that. So, Rahane understands that at this moment, he is the third opener and we will certainly back him there because we have shifted him around a bit in the middle order as well and it is not right.
But he has grabbed his opportunities well as he was the man of the series in West Indies, so he continues to be in the set-up," Kohli said during the pre-match press conference of first ODI.
Team: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.
