IND vs NZ: Shreyas Iyer ruled out of ODI leg due to back injury; Rajat Patidar named as replacement

A back injury has ruled India middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer out of the upcoming India versus New Zealand three-match ODI series starting Wednesday, January 18. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has confirmed the same in a press release and has also mentioned that Rajat Patidar will replace Shreyas in the ODI series.

Shreyas Iyer was India's leading run-scorer (combining all formats) for the calendar year 2022 and was a part of the team that featured against visitors Sri Lanka recently at home.

As far as Rajat Patidar is concerned, he was also a part of the Shikhar Dhawan-led side that had played against South Africa at home right before the start of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.

But Patidar, who was awarded the opportunity based on his performance in the Indian Premier League 2022 and the way he had consistently scored runs for Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit, didn't get the chance to make his international debut. The hosts had won the series 2-1 in the absence of many top-drawer player who were missing due to their participation in the T20 World Cup 2022.

Patidar has fairly good numbers in the first-class circuit. In 50 games, he has scored 3668 runs at a remarkable average of 46.43. His List A numbers require a bit of improvement as the right-handed batter has only racked up 1668 runs in 51 games at an average of 34.33.

On the other hand, Shreyas was not able to leave a lasting impression in the recently culminated ODI series against the Lankan Lions. With scores of 38, 28 and 28, Shreyas clearly got starts but failed to make them really count.

India’s updated ODI squad against New Zealand:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Rajat Patidar, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik