With the World Cup less than a month away, Kedar Jadhav has presented India with a worry, picking a shoulder injury while fielding during Chennai Super Kings' game against Kings XI Punjab in the IPL on Sunday. Jadhav is unlikely to play in Super Kings' remaining matches in the competition.
"Kedar Jadhav's getting an x-ray and a scan tomorrow," Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said after the match. "We're hopeful for him. I don't think we'll see him again in this tournament for us. So now his attention will turn to what it looks like for the World Cup.
"He's in some discomfort but we just need to be accurate with our assessments tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it's nothing too serious but it didn't look that good."
Jadhav was fielding on the leg-side boundary when he injured his left shoulder while diving to stop a ball. It was the 14th over, bowled by Dwayne Bravo, and Jadhav dived to his left while trying to stop an overthrow from Ravindra Jadeja. Jadhav stopped the ball, but immediately clutched his arm, and walked out to be attended to by Super Kings physio Tommy Simsek.
Jadhav did not take the field for the rest of the innings with M Vijay coming in as the substitute. To add to Super Kings' woes, Vijay spilled a straightforward catch at point from Nicholas Pooran the very next delivery.
The Indian team management and selectors will hope the injury is not too serious, considering that the squad will leave for the UK on May 22 with India playing their first group match on June 5 against South Africa. In case Jadhav's injury rules him out of the World Cup, the selectors will look at the back-up pool of Ambati Rayudu, Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel.
Jadhav had picked up an injury during the IPL last year too. He had sustained a hamstring tear in the tournament opener against Mumbai Indians and was then ruled out of the remainder of the tournament. This time, the injury will make him miss the playoffs for Super Kings.
As such, Jadhav has had an unimpressive IPL, scoring only 162 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 96 and average of 18, with one half-century. And he hasn't bowled at all.
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