Reports: Ravindra Jadeja to miss T20 World Cup, to undergo major knee surgery

Indian star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is set to undergo a knee surgery, ruling him out of the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. The setback comes a day after the southpaw was ruled out of the ongoing 15th edition of the Asia Cup due to a knee injury. The news comes as a huge blow for the Indian team in their bid to win the tournament Down Under.

The 33-year-old was ruled out of the Asia Cup after a persistent knee injury, and it could not be confirmed if the all-rounder has suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury, which would rule him out for at least six months. 

"Jadeja's right knee injury is pretty serious, He is supposed to undergo a major knee surgery and will be out of action for indefinite period of time. At this point, if one goes by the assessment of the NCA's medical team, one can't put a timeline on his imminent international comeback," a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

However, India coach Rahul Dravid has maintained a neutral stand on the matter and stated that T20 World Cup is far away to rule out any possibility for now. He added that Jadeja has injured his knee and medical team is giving him full attention and he would not like to rule the all-rounder out as of now.

Rahul Dravid 🗣️: "Jadeja is injured his knee. He is under the care of medical team WC is fair time away, let's not jump and say he is out . I don't want to rule him out."

— RevSportz (@RevSportz) September 3, 2022

Ravindra Jadeja's absence is a huge blow to India's chances of lifting the T20 World Cup

Jadeja's absence, in case he is not able to make in time, will be a huge blow for the Men in Blue as he has been one of the most consistent performers for the Indian team over the last few years and provided an ideal balance to the team. While Axar Patel has been named as his replacement in the Asia Cup squad, it is interesting how Rohit Sharma's side will cope with the effervescent cricketer's absence.

Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan had earlier praised Axar Patel's resurgence of late but believed Jadeja brings something special to the table, which is lacking in the other players vying for that place in the Indian team.

"Axar Patel is the absolutely correct like-to-like replacement. The only problem is that Jadeja had become such a fantastic batter that you could have batted him up the order, you might not be able to do that with Axar. You will get good bowling and fielding, there is no problem about that, but there will definitely be some issues regarding that change you could have done in the batting," Irfan said in an interaction with Star Sports.