“Some days back she got a hit on the thumb and she is not available,” coach Powar said on match eve
Harmanpreet Kaur, India’s vice-captain in the longer formats, has been ruled out of the first ODI against Australia scheduled for Tuesday. She sustained a thumb injury a few days ago, said head coach Ramesh Powar, and that a call on her availability for the second ODI will be taken in due course.
“She was declared fit. She was selected for this tour but, unfortunately, some days back she got a hit on the thumb and she is not available for the first ODI,” Powar said on match eve. “Next ODI we will take a call according to her pain management and fitness management.”
Powar said that all other members of the consolidated Test and ODI squad are fit and available for selection for Tuesday’s fixture.
Harmanpreet was left out of the warm-up game on Saturday in Brisbane, though she is understood to have batted in the nets. She had ended her Hundred stint in the UK prematurely owing to a quadriceps injury and then joined India’s other four Hundred-returnees in the Bengaluru preparatory camp to serve a mandatory seven-day quarantine.
Though cleared as fit, her inclusion in India’s 22-player squad for the seven-match multi-format series was something of a gamble since she made the cut without having been subjected to a workload assessment at training given the quarantine restrictions. The selection panel, ESPNcricinfo revealed at the time, wanted to give her more time to recover considering India had to undergo a 14-day hard quarantine after landing in Australia.
In Harmanpreet’s absence, Mithali Raj could reclaim the one-down spot, snapping a streak of 18 straight innings at No. 4 stretching back to early 2019.
“I’ve been quite flexible with my batting order whether it’s No. 3 or No. 4, but it all depends on the composition of the team,” Raj said. “If we have a good middle order, then I push my order up, that’s No. 3 and if there’s a little more inexperience in the middle order, then I push myself to No. 4. It all depends on the composition of the team, and now, with Harman out for the first ODI, I probably have to think about my order.”
Frontrunners for Harmanpreet’s place in the side include the uncapped Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues and Punam Raut. Considering Yastika, who can also keep, is the only one among the trio to have played the warm-up, making an impressive 42-ball 41, she is likely to pip Rodrigues, who is coming off memorable Hundred campaign, and Raut to the vacant spot.
“She [Rodrigues] will be, and is, part of our thought process going forward,” Powar said. “And, it’s about combination. We’re trying to find the right composition going towards the World Cup, so Jemi might miss out, Jemi might play, so we can’t say that now. It’s a three-ODI series, so we’ll take it one game at a time.”
More to follow
Annesha Ghosh is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @ghosh_annesha