The flamboyant Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya will not be playing any other game in the ongoing Asia Cup 2018 as he has suffered an acute lower back injury and Deepak Chahar is expected to replace him in the Indian squad. As per the source of PTI in BCCI, Deepak will be landing in the UAE on Thursday.
Pandya has been ruled out of the tournament and it was expected after he was stretchered off the field during the group A encounter against Pakistan on Wednesday. The incident took place in the 18th over of the Pakistan innings when the all-rounder was bowling his fifth over.
It was the fifth delivery and Hardik, after completing the follow through, immediately felt on the ground while having considerable pain in his lower back. He was unable to stand and was stretchered off. He was then taken for medical examination.
Injury update – @hardikpandya7 has an acute lower back injury. He is able to stand at the moment and the medical team is assessing him now.
Manish Pandey is on the field as his substitute #TeamIndia #AsiaCup pic.twitter.com/lLpfEbxykj— BCCI (@BCCI) September 19, 2018
Later, the BCCI tweeted that Pandya was suffering from an acute lower back injury. Pandya ended with figures of 4.5-0-24-0 after Babar Azam’s catch was dropped by Mahendra Singh Dhoni when the batsman was on 32.
The injury seemed very painful for Pandya. Apart from the Indian fellow cricketers, both the set Pakistan batsmen Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam checked up on him.
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Later, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released a statement, “Hardik Pandya has an acute lower back injury. He is able to stand at the moment and the medical team is assessing him now. More updates as and when there is one. Manish Pandey is on the field as his substitute.”
Here is the video of the moment when Pandya was stretchered off the field:
Pandya on stretcher..!! pic.twitter.com/ZOXXgbwrvM
— Videos Shots (@videos_shots) September 19, 2018
Brief scores:
India 164 for 2 (Rohit 52, Dhawan 46) defeated Pakistan 162 (Azam 47, Bhuvneshwar 3-15, Jadhav 3-23) by eight wickets and 126 balls to spare.
