India opener Shikhar Dhawan will leave for home on Sunday to attend to his ailing mother, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement on the eve of the fifth and final ODI against Sri Lanka. His mother is stable and recovering well, the statement added.
No replacement will be sent for the two fixtures left to play. The left-handed opener, who has been in great form since the ICC Champions Trophy, scored an unbeaten 132, 49, 5 and 4.
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With Shikhar Dhawan ruled out of the fifth ODI at the Premadasa Stadium in On Sunday and the one-off Twenty20 Internatinal to be played on September 6, Ajinkya Rahane is likely to be promoted to open the innings with Rohit Sharma.
The Indian cricket team also has the choice of asking KL Rahul to open, the batsman having struggled after being slotted into the middle order. Rahane, who was the Man-of-the-Series in the West Indies, is yet to play a game in this series.