Nottingham: Young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was Wednesday brought in as cover for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in India's World Cup squad.
Pant, whose omission from the original squad became a topic of heated debates given his stupendous form in the past one year, will reach here Wednesday.
His arrival will be a day before India's game against New Zealand and he won't be considered a replacement till the time the team management takes a final call on Dhawan's availability for the rest of the tournament.
"Rishabh Pant is being flown in from India as cover at the request of the team management," a senior BCCI official currently in England told PTI.
The 21-year-old is one of the most exciting players to have emerged in Indian cricket. He impressed with Test hundreds during the tours of England and Australia earlier and was in fine form during the IPL last month.
Several former players such as Sunil Gavaskar advocated for his inclusion in the squad if Dhawan fails to recover quickly enough for India. Dhawan has been ruled out of three matches due to a hairline fracture on his left thumb which he sustained during his match-winning hundred in the clash against Australia on Sunday.
"...Dhawan is presently under the observation of the BCCI medical team. The team management has decided that Dhawan will continue to be in England and his progress will be monitored," the Indian team said in a statement on Wednesday night.
"Dhawan sustained an injury on the back of his left hand in the region between the index finger and thumb...," it added.
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Nagpur (PTI): The death toll in the Nagpur explosives company blast has gone up to 19 after one more person succumbed, police said on Monday.
Twenty-three other injured workers were undergoing treatment in hospitals here, a police official said.
The toll in the blast at the SBL Energy Limited factory on Sunday has risen to 19 with the death of one more worker, he said.
A high-level meeting chaired by Nagpur Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule was underway at the divisional commissionerate here to deliberate and take stock of the incident that took place on Sunday.
Senior officials from various departments, local legislators and other leaders were present in the meeting.
The police have arrested nine directors of SBL Energy Limited, where the blast took place on Sunday morning, officials said.
The Kalmeshwar police here have registered a case against 21 directors and shareholders of the company under Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, they said.
The explosion occurred at the detonator packing unit of SBL Energy Limited, a mining and industrial explosives manufacturer, at Raulgaon in Katol tehsil of Nagpur district.
The bodies were charred beyond recognition, and samples of the family members were being taken for DNA testing to ascertain the identities of the deceased, police said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of the explosion.
