“Praveen Kumar has got a blunt chest on the left side, and has therefore been ruled out of the first three ODIs against the West Indies,” a BCCI release said.
Karnataka pacer Abhimanyu Mithun will replace Praveen in the squad for the first three matches to be held at Cuttack (on Tuesday), Visakhapatnam (December 2) and Ahmedabad (December 5).
It’s learnt that Praveen had experienced some chest pain after the one-off T20 against England at Kolkata on October 29, and had requested the BCCI for a two-week rest.
Though Praveen played for Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra at Meerut, the discomfort re-surfaced after that match, forcing him to sit out of Uttar Pradesh’s third round Elite Group ‘A’ Ranji Trophy match against Orissa last week at Sambalpur.
Earlier, stand-in Indian skipper Virender Sehwag too confirmed Praveen’s injury. “Praveen is not available for the first one-dayer because of injury, but he’s expected to be available for the later stages of the series,” Sehwag said.
This is the third injury Praveen has suffered this year. He had missed the World Cup 2011 because of a tennis elbow, and the UP man also suffered an ankle injury during the Test series in England.
