India will have to make do without Jemimah Rodrigues for the rest of the one-day series against Australia. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed just before the toss in New Chandigarh that the middle-order batter is down with a viral fever and won’t recover in time for the third match either. Tejal Hasabnis, another right-hander, has been called up as cover, while seamer-all-rounder Arundhati Reddy slotted straight into Wednesday’s XI.
Rodrigues, 25, managed 18 from 26 balls in Sunday’s opener – a game India eventually lost by eight wickets despite posting what looked a handy 281 for 7. Her absence leaves a fairly obvious hole at No. 5, an area India have tried to shore up ahead of the World Cup that starts on 30 September.
Hasabnis is no novice but she’s still finding her feet at this level. The 28-year-old debuted last October against New Zealand in Ahmedabad and has since piled up 140 runs from six digs, averaging just under 47 and scoring at a steady 78 per hundred balls. Not spectacular, but certainly solid. India think that will do the job for now.
There’s a fair bit of hope that Rodrigues will be back to full health quickly. The medical staff, the BCCI said, are “monitoring her progress” – the sort of line we’ve all come to expect. The wider concern, naturally, is fitness going into a home World Cup, co-hosted with Sri Lanka, where India’s middle order can’t really afford more reshuffles.
The updated squad for the closing two matches reads: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kranti Goud, Sayali Satghare, Radha Yadav, Sree Charani, Sneh Rana, Uma Chetry (wk) and Tejal Hasabnis. Prema Rawat and Priya Mishra stay on as travelling reserves.
Not ideal timing, but as ever, the fixtures don’t wait.
