In what could be a big blow for the Indian cricket team star opener Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the ICC World Cup 2019 for three weeks. The dashing southpaw injured his thumb during the match against Australia on Sunday but went on to be named the man of the match for his sparkling 117.

Dhawan went for scans on Monday and it has been diagnosed that there is a fracture on the thumb which would take at least three weeks to heal and BCCI has announced that he will not playing in the forthcoming matches against New Zealand, Pakistan, Afghanistan, West Indies and England.

Cricket analysts are of the opinion that K.L. Rahul will now be the opening partner of Rohit Sharma with Dinesh Karthick and Vijay Shankar bolstering up the middle order. Either Shreyas Iyer or Rishab Pant could be the replacement for Shikhar Dhawan who has so far scored three centuries in World Cup matches.