Karn Sharma ruled out of the limited overs tour of Zimbabwe

India’s young and talented leg spinner Karn Sharma has been ruled out of India’s limited overs tour of Zimbabwe after the leg spinner fractured his middle finger. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced that there will be no replacement for the injured player.

After Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Karn Sharma was the third to make the headlines from the small town of Meerut when he bagged a Rs 3.75 crore from Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2014 IPL auction which was the highest amount earned by a domestic uncapped player at that time and since then he has enjoyed his career in the IPL playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Since then he has taken 42 wickets in 41 matches at an economy of 7.5. Karn played for Railways since 2007 in the domestic circuit but it was 2012-13 season where he made his mark.  He won the BCCI award for the Best Under-25 cricketer after taking 21 wickets at 19.04 in three Ranji matches that season. It included an eight-wicket innings haul against defending champions Rajasthan, which remains a highlight of his first-class career.

He then had a brilliant IPL 2014 bagging 15 wickets before showing off his batting skills against South Africa A when he got India A across the line in a nail-biting chase with 39 off 16 at No. 9. Karn due to his performances rightly earned a call for India’s tour to England.

This would have been a comeback series for the leggie. Even though he has played just 2 ODI’s, he was totally off colour and was unable to pick up a wicket and leaked runs at the economy of 6.57. Also, with the experience of someone like Harbhajan Singh alongside him, Karn would have developed as a bowler and learnt some tricks from the turbanator. Only time can tell what effect this injury is going to have on his career for India as a lot of spinners have been knocking the door lately.

India will play Zimbabwe in three ODIs and two T20 Internationals starting July 10. The team, without six senior players, will be led by Ajinkya Rahane.