Will Gautam Gambhir Miss The England ODIs As Well?

There is no end to India’s injury’s issues on their tour of England and the latest to be ruled out of the side for the T20I game against England is Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir had suffered from a head injury that resulted in a minor head concussion in the fourth and the final Test match against England at the Oval and he hadn’t recovered from that injury.

In fact, if rumours are to be believed, Gambhir may miss the ODIs as well, but there has been no official confirmation on that so far from the Indian management.

After having missed out of most of the practice sessions, he had a light batting session Sunday but complained of visibility issues and was said to have not been able to sight the ball too well. According to the team manager, Shivlal Yadav, Gambhir will visit an eye specialist and based on the report that the specialist gives, a decision could be taken for Gambhir.

Already, India are without Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh from the batting line-up that had won India the World Cup earlier this year. Gambhir’s injury and absence will be a big blow, especially given that it would mean that Sehwag is also an opener, missing out on the action. One of Parthiv Patel or Ajinkya Rahane could be given a chance to open the innings with Sachin Tendulkar.

Patel is a wicket-keeper and has opened the Indian side in recent times in the ODIs. Rahane, on the other hand, hasn’t played an international so far and was selected on the weight of some solid first class and India A form.

Interestingly, if Gambhir misses the ODIs, the next cricket series is the Champions League T20 that begins from September 19, in which he could be captaining the Kolkata Knight Riders. It will be interesting to follow how the fans would react if that scenario were to arise, especially after Gambhir played in the IPL, aggravating an injury and in turn, missed the tour of West Indies.

The one-off T20I will be played on August 31, followed by the five ODIs.