Asia Cup 2023: Shreyas Iyer yet to recover fully before India vs Sri Lanka, Axar replaces Shardul

Shreyas Iyer has not recovered fully from the back spasms and has not returned to the Indian team for the Super 4s clash against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. In further team news, Axar Patel replaced Shardul Thakur with the pitch looking dry to Rohit Sharma.

Iyer had missed the match against Pakistan due to back spasms right before the game was to get underway. He has reportedly improved but has been advised rest by the medical team.

Asia Cup Cricket Live: India vs Sri Lanka

“Shreyas Iyer is feeling better but is yet to fully recover from back spasm. He has been adviced rest by the BCCI Medical Team and has not travelled with the team to the stadium today for India’s Super 4 match against Sri Lanka,” said a BCCI tweet.

UPDATE – Shreyas Iyer is feeling better but is yet to fully recover from back spasm. He has been adviced rest by the BCCI Medical Team and has not travelled with the team to the stadium today for India’s Super 4 match against Sri Lanka.#AsiaCup2023 pic.twitter.com/q6yyRbVchj

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 12, 2023

In his place, KL Rahul made a comeback to cricket against Pakistan. Against Pakistan, he scored 111 runs from 106 balls. He and Kohli took India to a mammoth 356 runs.

At the toss, Rohit Sharma made the right call and decided to bat. India are playing for a third straight day after the contest against Pakistan, originally scheduled for Sunday, was pushed to the reserve day (Monday). “It’s the challenge you come across as a sportsman,” Rohit told Ravi Shastri at the toss. “You’ve got to adjust, adapt as quickly as you can.”

“We ensured everyone got into the pool after the game last night. They are fresh as we had five days off before these two games. Last game was good for us, we batted well and then came out to defend the total with some good bowling. But again this is a new day and a fresh game.”

“The pitch looks different, looks a lot drier and there’s no grass and hence we bring in Axar for Shardul. It might assist the spinners but we also have three quality pacers,” added Rohit Sharma.

Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka said they would have batted too. “The youngsters have become senior players. Young Wellalage is doing so well, Samarawickrama, Matheesha Pathirana. Hopefully everyone will continue their momentum today. They are a pretty strong side compared to us, we need to play a quality game of cricket,” he said.

On their part, Sri Lanka go into the match unchanged from their win over Bangladesh.

India XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Sri Lanka XI: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis(w), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka(c), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana