Yuvraj ruled out of series

The left-hander, who played for the first time in the five-match series against Sri Lanka in Cuttack’s third game after sitting out the first two games owing to an injury to his left little finger, aggravated the injury, thus ruling himself out of the remaining two matches in Kolkata (Dec 24) and Delhi (Dec 27).

“Due to the finger injury sustained earlier, Yuvraj Singh has been advised rest and therefore he will not play in the fourth and the fifth ODI matches against Sri Lanka,” read a press release from Board of Control for Cricket India secretary N Srinivasan.

There will be, however, no replacement for Yuvraj as India already have a reserve batsman in Virat Kohli. India are already grappling with the loss of Dhoni, and Yuvraj’s injury-induced exit comes as the latest setback to their aspirations of clinching the series which they lead 2-1. Yuvraj might have been included in the final eleven on Monday to bolster the middle-order rendered somewhat shaky in Dhoni’s absence, but the move now appears to have proved costly.

In fact, Yuvraj was seen collecting the ball with only one hand during India’s fielding and when asked if the left-hander was fully fit to take the field, stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag had quipped: “I think you should ask Yuvraj why he fielded with one hand.”
 
Sri Lanka have also been hit by a series of injuries to key players. Off-spinning legend Muttiah Muralitharan had to fly back home without playing a single one-dayer after failing to recover from a finger injury sustained during the Test series while paceman Dilhara Fernando followed suit, sustaining a broken finger injury in the first one-dayer at Rajkot. All-rounder Angelo Mathews returned home after injuring his quadriceps during Lanka’s successful chase in Nagpur.