Injured Praveen out of one-day series

The Uttar Pradesh swing bowler has been an influential performer on the limited-overs stage with his ability to prodigiously swing the white Kookaburra ball and his clever changes of pace, but an elbow injury in his bowling arm has forced the team management to fly him back home for rest and recuperation ahead of next month’s World Cup.

At this stage, Praveen is not in any great danger of missing the big bash, though his departure will take one wicket-taking option away from Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Team manager Ranjib Biswal confirmed that Delhi pacer Ishant Sharma, who played in all three Test matches, will fly back to South Africa on Wednesday as Praveen’s replacement.

India are already minus the experienced duo of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, who both left after the Test matches to tend to hand-related injuries. Praveen’s unavailability robs them of a third certainty in the first-choice playing eleven, continuing a trend that has seen India not being able to put out their best eleven for more than one year now.

“With the World Cup around, we don’t want to risk him,” Dhoni told newsmen. “Praveen has been a very good bowler, irrespective of the conditions. It would have been good to feature the main eleven, but we don’t want to lose any of the key players just before the start of the World Cup.”