Injury news Indian’s ICC tournament specialist Shikhar Dhawan suffered a fractured thumb against Australia on Sunday and will be out for an unspecified period of time. There is talk of India replacing him. To me, that would be daft. They would qualify for the semi-finals if they had me opening the batting in his place, so surely they should keep him in the squad on the assumption he’ll be fit for the knockout games. The first semi-final isn’t until 9 July.
Harsha Bhogle
(@bhogleharsha)If indeed Dhawan is out for 3 weeks, India have a tough decision ahead of them. Do they seek a replacement, in which case he is out of the tournament (unless back as a replacement for another player) or do they back Shanker and Karthik to bat at 4 till he is fit again.
Some pre-match reading
I say pre-match. I’ll level with you: I’m not sure there’ll be a match!
Updated
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s daily weather report, also known in some cultures as the Cricket World Cup. We’ve had two washouts in the last four days, and things don’t look too pretty in Bristol this morning. Brizzle is made for mizzle and drizzle, but sadly the weather in the last 24 hours has more of a phonetic connection with somewhere like Teresópolis.
Yes, I know it’s an imperfect rhyme. I’m doing my best. Come on, work with me here!
There are some games, in football parlance, when both sides are happy to take a point. Bangladesh v Sri Lanka is not one of them. Both teams will have marked this as a must-win if they are to reach the semi-finals. Either that or they marked it, ‘Will probably pour down, reluctantly accept a point’, in which case they are meteorological visionaries.
The match starts, in theory, at 10.30am.
Updated
