Manish Pandey ruled out of ICC Champions Trophy 2017; Dinesh Karthik named as replacement

With the ICC Champions Trophy coming up in a few weeks, Manish Pandey has been ruled out of the tournament due to a left side strain which he incurred during the Indian Premier League a few days ago.

Wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik has been named as the replacement for the 27-year-old.

The news was broken through BCCI’s official Twitter handle.

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

Karthik, who has not played an ODI for India since 2014 has been exceptional in this year’s IPL. He has amassed 361 runs at an impressive average of 36 and a great strike rate of nearly 140.

Karthik was a part of India’s 2013 Champions Trophy squad too, where India emerged victorious against England in the final. He managed to score 82 runs in 4 innings at an average of 41 with one half-century to his name.

However, it was in the warm-up matches to the tournament where the Tamil Nadu lad had impressed. He scored two centuries in two matches against Sri Lanka and Australia to help India achieve victories against both teams.

The 31-year-old is coming off an extremely impressive domestic season where he helped Tamil Nadu achieve a lot of success. He was one of the leading run-getters in the prestigious tournament. He played an integral role in TN’s victorious Vijay-Hazare trophy win too by scoring a lot of runs.

Luckily enough for the Gujarat Lions, he carried that form into the IPL as well by providing a lot of stability in the middle order of the innings.

Karthik made his debut for the Indian cricket team way back in 2004 but was soon replaced by MS Dhoni. He never enjoyed a long stint with the side due to his inconsistent performances. He would look to turn that around if given a chance to perform at the Champions trophy this time around.

On the other hand, Pandey, who played a big role in KKR’s success this season would feel hard done by his injury as he was set to take part in his first ever 50-over ICC tournament. He will look to get back to full fitness quickly and hope for the selectors to give him another chance soon enough. He would be eyeing a comeback in the series against West Indies shortly after the Champions Trophy.