Nottingham: The BCCI senior selection committee and the team management are not on the same page over Rishabh Pant joining India’s World Cup squad as ‘cover’ for the injured Shikhar Dhawan, it has been learnt.
It has emerged that the team management was never keen on any replacement, including Pant. They were hoping for Dhawan to get fit for the business end of the tournament.
Chances of Dhawan attaining match fitness, however, look grim at the moment. The team management is looking up to the cases where athletes have recovered quicker than expected.
On the eve of the match against New Zealand, assistant coach Sanjay Bangar said Wednesday that Dhawan is so ‘precious’ that skipper Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri are willing to wait even if the opener is fit for the last league game july 6 against Sri Lanka.
The three selectors – chairman MSK Prasad, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh – are currently in England and ‘wanted to announce a replacement straightaway’.
“… But the team management seemed against the idea as a replacement would have meant that Dhawan would practically have no chance of making it back if India goes into the semifinals. Look at his hands. It’s plastered and things are not great,” a BCCI source, privy to the development, told this agency on conditions of anonymity.
Regarding Pant, a final decision was arrived at when the team management was convinced that it would need a back-up if the situation turns worse.
“He (Pant) bats in the middle-order, and obviously being a left-hander (also) helps. He was named in the stand-by as well. So the team management has gone and picked him for the order,” Bangar said.
Pant has been chosen as a cover for Dhawan and not included in the squad. Hence he will not have access to the Indian dressing room or can travel on the team bus on match days.
PTI
