India A pacer Khaleel Ahmed suffers fracture in wrist; ruled out of New Zealand tour

India A’s tour of New Zealand has been going very well so far with the visitors winning both the practice matches and the unofficial ODI series is currently equal at 1-1 with India A winning one game and New Zealand A winning the second one-day game. One of the reasons for the Indian team’s success apart from some brilliant batting has been some terrific bowling from talented bowlers.

One of those bowlers has been left-arm seamer, Khaleel Ahmed. Ahmed missed the selection for Team India for the World Cup last year by a whisker and had a very good cricketing season, he played one match and picked 2/46 in the unofficial one-day game. In one of the practice matches, he picked 4/43 and with a decent economy of 5.18 on the tour so far. However, it has come to light that his tour has come to an early end after he suffered an injury in the first ODI.

NCA to manage Khaleel Ahmed’s rehabilitation

The BCCI released a statement that read, “Khaleel Ahmed fractured the scaphoid bone in his left wrist during India A’s first one-day match against New Zealand A at Lincoln on January 22. His hand has been placed in a plaster cast and the left-arm fast bowler has been ruled out of the remainder of India A’s tour. NCA will manage his rehabilitation.”

He had suffered the injury during the first unofficial one-day match against New Zealand A on Wednesday. This comes as bad news for the Men in Blue, as Khaleel was in good form with the ball, even prior to this tour. For Rajasthan in Ranji Trophy, he had scalped six matches from four games. The left-arm seamer was part of India’s squad for the T20I series against Bangladesh before being dropped from the West Indies T20I and ODI series.

This had happened due to Khaleel Ahmed conceding 18 runs in the penultimate over in the first T20I match against Bangladesh in Delhi, as he was hit for four fours and effectively sealed the opposition team’s victory over India. This was the Tigers’ first win over India in the 20-over international format.