After getting ruled out of the Australia-India Test series due to a wrist injury, Indian batsman KL Rahul took to social media to make his feeling apparent on missing out on action in an evenly-fought series.
The 28-year-old middle-order batsman wrote on Twitter that he is feeling gutted on leaving the team midway while wishing them all the best ahead of the Sydney Test, starting on Thursday.
The BCCI earlier confirmed the development in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
"KL Rahul sprained his left wrist while batting in the nets at the MCG during Team India’s practice session on Saturday. The wicketkeeper-batsman will not be available for the remaining two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as he will need about three weeks time to recover completely and regain full strength," the BCCI wrote in a release.
"He will now return to India and head to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for further rehabilitation of his injury," the release further read.
The injury issues have grappled the Indian Test squad ever since the beginning of the Test series. While Mohammed Shami suffered from a wrist fracture while batting in the second innings of the first Test, Umesh Yadav was also ruled out of the series after the completion of the second match.
The team is already without the services of captain Virat Kohli, who returned to India after the Adelaide Test to attend the birth of his first child.
Rohit Sharma also missed the entire limited-overs leg, as well as the first two Tests before rejoining the side last week, ahead of the match in Sydney.
The injury to Rahul comes as a major blow, as Rahul was touted to make a comeback in Test XI, following a string of low scores from Hanuma Vihari. In the three innings across two Tests so far, Vihari has scored 45 runs.
The Border-Gavaskar trophy is currently level at 1-1, with India making a remarkable comeback after the infamous '36-all-out' in the first Test in Adelaide. The Ajinkya Rahane-led side produced a dominating performance in the Boxing Day Test to beat the hosts by 8 wickets.
