Dhawal Kulkarni to stay in Australia as cover for Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Dhawal Kulkarni’s World Cup hopes still alive

With only 4 days to go for the World Cup, medium pacer Dhawal Kulkarni has been asked to stay back with the rest of his Indian teammates in Australia as a cover for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. It is learnt that the 25-year-old Bhuvneshwar had an issue while landing on his delivery stride during India’s first warm-up game, against Australia, at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

Since that delivery, Bhuvneshwar didn’t totally comfortable out in the middle, which led to him bowling well within himself. The 25-year-old bowled 5 wicketless overs versus Australia, gave away 31 runs and didn't come out to bat either. He had been given a go ahead after passing a key fitness test a day before the game.

To be on the safer side, the team management have asked Kulkarni, the 26-year-old Mumbai pacer, to remain Down Under.

According to the ICC rules, no more than 15 players can be inside a team’s dressing room, and so Dhawal will be put up in the BCCI box during the World Cup matches.

Kulkarni has played 4 ODIs for India ever since making his debut in the series against England last year. He has picked up 8 wickets in ODIs so far and recorded his best bowling performance of 4 for 34 against Sri Lanka at Kolkata in November 2014.

India begin their World Cup campaign, against Pakistan, on Sunday.