India opener Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the ongoing 2019 World Cup, as he is not in a position to recover in time for the remaining games of the showpiece event.
The call on Dhawan was made after it was ascertained that the opener, who sustained a thumb fracture during India's clash against Australia, will take more than two weeks to recover.
BCCI issues a confirmation statement on his absence from the remainder of the tournament.
Dhawan suffered the injury after being hit by a Pat Cummins delivery. The swashbuckling opener played through pain to score a hundred in that game. The dashing opener from Delhi, however, couldn't take the field in the second innings of the match.
While the X-ray didn't show any fracture, CT scan revealed otherwise and Dhawan was taken to a specialist for further assessment.
Dhawan was initially ruled out of three games -- against Pakistan (June 16), Afghanistan (June 22) and the West Indies (June 27). Now it has been learnt that he "has no chance" of recovering in time for the June 30 match against England.
The 33-year-old Dhawan has been replaced by young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.
Pant was brought in as cover for him after the team management decided to wait on Dhawan's recovery but assessment of the injury this week did no throw up encouraging results.
As a consequence, the 21-year-old Pant, whose omission from the original squad had kicked up a storm given his exceptional form in the past one year, has got the big break.
Pant had scored impressive hundreds during the Test tours of England and Australia. He also enjoyed a good run in the IPL last month.
(With inputs from agencies)
