Vijay Shankar has been ruled out of the 2019 World Cup with a fractured toe. Mayank Agarwal is set to fly out as his replacement and will join the squad later this week. India have two fixtures remaining, against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on July 2 and July 6 respectively.
"Vijay sustained a non-displaced fracture of the left big toe, which will require a minimum of three weeks to heal. The injury rules him out of the ongoing World Cup," stated a BCCI media release.
Vijay was struck on his left foot by a Jasprit Bumrah yorker at training on June 20. The injury was not perceived to be serious initially and Vijay was part of India's XI for the match against Afghanistan on June 22 and West Indies on June 27. However, the injury flared up on Friday, two days before the England game. On match-eve, he missed an option training session even as the support staff oversaw rigorous net sessions for Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant, who replaced Vijay in India's XI on Sunday.
The selection of Agarwal and not Ambati Rayudu, one of five stand-bys named earlier, is possibly a sign of him being looked at as the third opener. KL Rahul spent considerable time off the field during the England game after bruising his back while attempting a catch at the boundary. It was deemed to be an external injury and he eventually returned to open the batting and was dismissed for a nine-ball duck.
Agarwal, uncapped in the shorter formats, Agarwal made his Test debut in Melbourne in December last year after being called in as a replacement for the injured Prithvi Shaw. He was to undergo a fitness assessment this week before flying out to the Caribbean with the India A team for five one-dayers and the third unofficial Test.
Agarwal has been a prolific List A batsman for Karnataka, averaging 48.71 in 75 innings, having aggregated 3605 runs with 12 hundreds and 14 half-centuries. He had a prolific run in England with the India A squad last year, scoring 287 runs in four one-day innings at an average of 71.75 and strike rate of 105.90.