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New Delhi: KL Rahul, India\u2019s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter for the Asia Cup, will not be available for the first two matches at the tournament, against Pakistan and Nepal, head coach Rahul Dravid has confirmed.<\/span><\/p>\n Dravid said Rahul has been \u201cprogressing really well\u201d, but won\u2019t be ready in time for the group-stage fixtures against Pakistan (September 2) and Nepal (September 4), both of which will be played in Pallekele.<\/p>\n \u201cKL has had a good week here [at India\u2019s conditioning camp] with us. Trained well and done a lot of things. He\u2019s progressing really well on the route that we want to take. But he will be unavailable for the Kandy leg of the trip,\u201d Dravid said at India\u2019s pre-departure press interaction in Bengaluru. \u201cThe NCA [National Cricket Academy] will be looking after him for the next few days while we are travelling. We will reassess on September 4 and take it from there. But signs are looking good and he\u2019s progressing really well.\u201d<\/p>\n When the squad for the Asia Cup was named, Rahul was deemed conditionally fit. While he had fully recovered from the thigh injury he sustained during IPL 2023, for which he underwent surgery followed by a comprehensive rehabilitation at the NCA, Rahul was understood to have picked up a minor niggle that made him a doubtful starter for the early parts of the Asia Cup. This was later confirmed by chief selector Ajit Agarkar at the press conference to announce the squad last week.<\/p>\n The medical team at the NCA in Bengaluru is understood to have been happy with Rahul\u2019s batting workload, but was monitoring his wicketkeeping; he is understood to have complained of soreness after one of the practice matches organised by the NCA last week.<\/p>\n Dravid also informed that batter Shreyas Iyer is fit and has \u201cticked all the boxes\u201d during the practice session.<\/p>\n \u201cShreyas Iyer has ticked all the boxes in the practice session. We\u2019ll give him game time in the Asia Cup,\u201d said Dravid.<\/p>\n Taking to X (formerly Twitter), BCCI wrote, \u201cKL Rahul is progressing really well but will not be available for India\u2019s first two matches \u2013 against Pakistan and Nepal \u2013 of the #AsiaCup2023: Head Coach Rahul Dravid.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n [ad_2] [ad_1] New Delhi: KL Rahul, India\u2019s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter for the Asia Cup, will not be available for the first two matches at the tournament, against Pakistan and Nepal, head coach Rahul Dravid has confirmed. Dravid said Rahul has been \u201cprogressing really well\u201d, but won\u2019t be ready in time for the group-stage fixtures against Pakistan (September […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6578,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576\/revisions\/6578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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