India's stand-in skipper KL Rahul picked up a hand injury during a practice session ahead of the 2nd Test vs Bangladesh.
Talking to the press on the eve of the match, batting coach Vikram Rathour said," The injury doesn't look serious. He looks fine. Hopefully, he'll be fine. The doctors are looking at it, but hopefully he'll be okay."
In case Rahul misses out, India's current Vice Captain may lead the time and Rohit Sharma's replacement Abhimanyu Easwaran could get a game.
A Little Background
India and Bangladesh are all to take on each other in the second and final Test match of the series. KL Rahul's team won the first match by a huge margin of 188 runs and would want to continue the winning momentum, particularly with the chance to make it to the WTC final looming in the background.
The WTC Standings
The race for the top-two spots in the WTC standings has become more interesting with India (55.77 PCT) moving up to the second position following South Africa's (54.55 PCT) heavy loss to Australia (76.92 PCT) in the two-day Gabba Test. The upcoming home series against Australia will be decisive in India's bid for a second straight WTC final but they also can't afford any slip-ups against Bangladesh, who showed plenty of fight in the first Test after a poor first innings with the bat.
Also Read: Reviewing Virat Kohli's 2022 performance in ODIs, T20s and Tests
What To Expect?
Considering the conditions, the bowlers will once again be looking to target the stumps, be it the pacers or slower bowlers. Kuldeep, playing his first Test since February last year, flaunted his artistry with a match haul of eight wickets. Compared to lead spinner R Ashwin and Axar Patel, he was slightly under-bowled in the second innings but the left-arm wrist spinner still managed to take three wickets.
Ashwin could manage only one wicket in spin-friendly conditions and he will be looking to make up for that here. Axar displayed his utility to the team with four strikes in the second innings with the batters struggling against his fast left-arm spin.
Full Squads
India
KL Rahul (captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Saurabh Kumar, Kona Bharat, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran.
Bangladesh
Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Litton Das (wk), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mominul Haque, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Anamul Haque Bijoy, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Taijul Islam, Najmul Hossain Shanta, Rejaul Rahaman Raja, Zakir Hasan (wk), Nurul Hasan (wk), Yasir Ali
