KL Rahul, the back-up opener in the side, will replace Vijay and partner Shikhar Dhawan upfront.
Vijay, 32, injured his right thumb when he was dismissed by a Shannon Gabriel delivery that struck his finger before ballooning towards the slip cordon. The elegant right-hander, who was visibly discomforted by the blow, didn't take the field during West Indies' innings and was not required to bat in the second essay as India completed an innings and 92-run victory to take a 1-0 series lead.
He batted very little at the nets on the eve of thegame, only stepping out to hit some throwdowns towards the end of the session. He was also conspicuous by his absence during the fielding drills, running laps around the ground instead of taking catches at slip.
Speaking about the setback, Virat Kohli, India team captain said, "Unfortunately, Vijay has to miss out because of injury. (It's) not good for him. He's someone who has always done well for the team, always takes pride in playing for the country. He was not really happy with getting hit in the first innings, (but it) is not in his control."
Kohli was, however, happy that he had a sound fall-back option in KL Rahul, saying it makes his job easy as a captain when he has such good bench strength. The 24-year-old Rahul, who replaced Vijay in the line-up for two Tests when the latter picked up a hamstring injury during India's tour of Sri Lanka in 2015, has enjoyed a fine run of form in the build-up to the Test series, albeit in the shorter formats. He enjoyed a breakthrough season in the Indian Premier League, where he finished with a season tally of 397 runs playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. His consistent run of form through the Twenty20 tournament paved the way for his ODI and T20I debuts in Zimbabwe, where he was amongst the team's best batsmen. In five Test matches so far, Rahul has notched up two hundreds but averages a modest 25.60..
"Well, (Rahul has) been in a very good zone," Kohli said. "He scored runs in the practice games, he scored in Zimbabwe, we all know that. He had a great IPL season. I think that was the turnaround for confidence as far as he's concerned. Last year, he had a good tour to Sri Lanka, got a hundred there. Again, didn't play against South Africa.
"It's more a case of a guy waiting for an opportunity. You can see that with him. You can sense it. He wants to play. He's batting really well, he wants to make it count. He wants to get big runs. I'm confident of his abilities. He's pretty compact, he's a solid opener and he's a great fielder as well. Gives you that wicket-keeping option as well, in case something happens to Saha," he said.
"He's all in all, he's a great package for the team and it's great to see that he's going to get a Test match.
India currently lead the series 1-0, having claimed a big win in Antigua. The second Test will get underway at Sabina Park, Jamaica on Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment