Rajkot, January 18: Shikhar Dhawan was hit on the rib cage by a Pat Cummins bouncer while batting in the second ODI against Australia. While Dhawan didn't take the field for the entire duration of the Australian innings, the Indian team management is confident that he will be available for the final ODI in Bengaluru.
It couldn't be ascertained whether Dhawan has had a precautionary scan to detect the extent of injury.
Incidentally, it was a Cummins bouncer in the first game that had left Rishabh Pant concussed and out of the second match after being rushed to hospital for a precautionary CT scan.
"Shikhar Dhawan got hit on the rib-cage on his right side. He will not be taking the field today. Yuzvendra Chahal is in as his substitute," BCCI stated during the interval.
However, the word from team management after the match was that Dhawan is "doing fine" and there are no problems as such.
Dhawan was hit in the 10th over of the Indian innings. While he was in considerable pain and needed medical attention, he decided to carry on batting, scoring a fluent 96 in India's total of 340 for six.
Ironically, it was against Australia in the ICC World Cup 2019 that Dhawan had sustained a fractured thumb after being hit by a rising delivery from Cummins.