Ambati Rayudu ruled out of Duleep Trophy, Prithvi Shaw named as replacement

Things have gone bad for India Red in the Duleep Trophy as their Hyderabad batsman and former India International, Ambatu Rayudu, suffered a knee injury prior to the start of the Day-Night Pink ball opening match of the All India Buchi Babu Invitational Cricket tournament between India Reds and India Green. It was recently announced that their captain also suffered an ailment and is scheduled to sit out of the match.

Mumbai batsman, Prithvi Shaw has been named as the late replacement for the Hyderabad batsman. The match will be played at the newly built Ekana International Stadium in Lucknow. The new season has been plagued with injuries, illness, or players unavailable due to national duties. Apart from Ambati Rayudu, Shreyas Iyer, Ishant Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Vijay Shankar, Parvez Rasool and many others who were initially a part of the tournament are unavailable in the 11th hour.

Many star players unavailable for the tournament’s opening game

This has led to chaos and an urgent need for replacements. Siddharth Kaul, who was part of the India Green squad will now play for India reds. It was learnt that BCCI had arranged tickets and car for their captain Abhinav Mukund but the latter never showed up. Furthermore, he informed the board late about his non-availability which added to the chaos, prior to the start of the domestic season.

Ishant Sharma announced his unavailability due to his stint in the English County season. Shreyas Iyer was initially announced in the squad but the Mumbai batsman has not recovered fully from his injury along with Vijay Shankar who came back from the South Africa ‘A’ tour with a shoulder injury. Rasool is on a Haj pilgrimage and will miss out on India Green’s first match on Thursday. Jharkhand pacer Varun Aaron and Chattisgarh’s Pankaj Rao have been called in as replacements amongst the chaos.