India pacer Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the 2015 World Cup due to a knee injury and will return to India early next week. Mohit Sharma, who was travelling in Australia with the team, was named Ishant's replacement after the World Cup's Event Technical Committee approved the change.
The injury had kept Ishant away from competitive cricket for more than a month. He last bowled in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in December before he was picked for the Australia Day ODI in Sydney which was abandoned due to rain. However, that was the only game he was picked for in the tri-series, as he injured his knee again before the ODI against England in Perth. Mohit and Dhawal Kulkarni, who were part of the squad for the tri-series, have stayed back in Australia and trained with the full World Cup squad in Adelaide on Saturday. Ishant, however, did not bowl during the training session. India had better news regarding the fitness of batsman Rohit Sharma and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Rohit played only one ODI in the tri-series against Australia and England due to a hamstring niggle. A left-ankle injury had kept Bhuvneshwar out of the first three Tests in Australia and a recurrence of the injury meant that he played only two matches in the tri-series.
