The Indian cricket team received a massive boost on Thursday when their regular vice-captain in limited overs cricket, KL Rahul, was declared fit for action and he will return to lead the side in their upcoming ODI tour to Zimbabwe with the three matches to be played on August 18, 20 and 22 in Harare respectively.
KL Rahul, who has been out of action since the conclusion 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 tournament, in which he led the new team Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) remarkably well, will be captaining the Indian team as the 16th member of the squad while Shikhar Dhawan will move back to the role of vice-captain for the tour.
The aggressive left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan was named the captain of the Indian side for the Zimbabwe tour after the regular skipper Rohit Sharma was rested while senior batsman and former captain Virat Kohli was also not named in the squad.
“The BCCI Medical Team has assessed KL Rahul and cleared him to play in the upcoming three-match ODI series in Zimbabwe. The All-India Senior Selection Committee has appointed him the captain of the side and named Shikhar Dhawan as his deputy,”
the BCCI informed in an email on Thursday, August 11 evening.
However, both the senior batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were named in the squad for the Asia Cup 2022 to be played in the United Arab Emirates later this month. The right-handed explosive batsman KL Rahul has also been named in the squad.
KL Rahul was set for a comeback in the West Indies but he was found Coronavirus positive one week before the departure of the team for the tour to the Caribbean. The swashbuckling batsman had missed a string of series for India – both home and away – owing to the sports hernia injury that he had suffered for which he had also undergone operation in Germany.
This will be the second time that KL Rahul will be leading an Indian side after doing so earlier this year in South Africa, wherein his visiting side was blanked 3-0 by a resurgent team under the captaincy of Temba Bavuma.