Dinesh Karthik replaces injured Manish Pandey in Champion’s Trophy

Indian team middle order batsman Manish Pandey has been ruled out of upcoming ICC Champions Trophy starting 1^st June because of a side strain and will be replaced by in the squad by wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, the BCCI declared on Thursday.

Manish Pandey, 27, the Karnataka batsman who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), endured a left side strain amid a practice session. KKR confront Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 at Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.

Pandey had suffered a side strain injury during the practice session and was replaced by Ishank Jaggi for the eliminator match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Karthik has been rewarded for his consistent performance in domestic matches as well as in IPL for Gujarat Lions. He scored 704 runs in the Ranji Trophy and 361 runs in IPL matches. His last international match that he had played for India was against Afghanistan in 2014 in Asia Cup in Bangladesh.

NEWS ALERT: @DineshKarthik to replace injured Manish Pandey in the Indian team for Champions Trophy #TeamIndia 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/puFZCx5QJN

— BCCI (@BCCI) May 18, 2017

Dinesh Karthik was one of the five standbys named by the Indian selectors while reporting the 15-part squad for the competition, to be played in England from June 1 to 18. The 31 year old was also the part of 2014 Champion’s Trophy squad.

Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav and Shardul Thakur were the others the stores list, just on the off chance that those in the squad separated toward the finish of a bustling season.

Safeguarding champions India will open their battle against Pakistan at Edgbaston on June 4. They are in Group B with South Africa and Sri Lanka in the eight-group competition. Australia, England, New Zealand and Bangladesh are in group A.