Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been ruled out of the ODIs as well as the T20 series against Australia with lower back stiffness, the BCCI confirmed in a press release on Thursday.
Left arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja will be replacing Pandya in the One Day leg of the Australia series while the selectors have decided to stick to a 14 man squad for the T20 games.
Anthony Devlin/ AFP
Hardik Pandya will now undergo strength and conditioning training at the National Cricket Academy of Bangalore, in a bid to regain his fitness ahead of the 2019 World Cup. The 25-year-old suffered a similar injury in the Asia Cup in September 2018 and Only recently made his comeback to the Indian team against New Zealand, after temporarily being suspended by the BCCI for his 'sexist' comments at a Indian talk show.
The first T20 game between India and Australia is set to start on the 24th of February, with the first fifty over a game to be played on the 2nd of Match in Hyderabad. This will be India's final tournament before the World Cup kicks off in June 2019 in England.
