Injuries put Dhawan out of Lanka tour

This Sri Lanka tour has been an unlucky one for the Indian openers. After Murali Vijay was forced to sit out of the first Test in Galle due to hamstring injury, his partner Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the series after suffering two hairline fractures in his right hand.

The 29-year-old suffered the injury when he dropped Kaushal Silva at slip on the opening day of the Test match. Despite that, Dhawan went on to score a patient 271-ball 134 and then a fighting 83-ball 28, albeit in a losing cause.

The Indian team, which checked into Colombo on Sunday, sent Dhawan for an MRI test on Monday, where the extent of the injury was revealed.  Dhawan, one of the in-form batsmen with back-to-back centuries, will require four to six weeks to recover.

Team director Ravi Shastri was full of praise for Dhawan for playing the entire game despite being in a lot of pain.

“It is unfortunate because Shikhar is a class act. He has been brilliant for us. It also shows the courage he displayed in the last Test match because that injury was before he batted in the first innings. He played with a crack and he got a hundred, and came out when his hand was really bad in that second innings and again batted and got 30. That’s the positive I take out from a player — courageous, and when the team needed him, he was there. It was unfortunate.”

Shastri also said he was confident about Vijay recovering from his injury and that there would not be any replacement for Dhawan as of now.

“Murali Vijay is recovering, and recovering well. Let’s not forget it’s a hamstring. We want to be absolutely sure he’s fully recovered before we field him. Depending on that, the composition of the side could change,” he said.