Ravichandran Ashwin ruled out of ODI series, Harbhajan Singh included

Harbhajan Singh was called as a replacement for Ravichandran Ashwin after the latter was ruled out of the remainder of the One-Day global (ODI) series against South Africa with a side strain in the first match at Kanpur on Sunday.

The Indian off-spinner suffered the injury while trying to stop an AB de Villiers’ shot during the 32nd over of the match.

Ashwin suffered the injury when he dove to his right to a save a single off his own bowling and hurt himself. He was off the field after this, ending his spell at 3.4 overs.

He returned later on and bowled an over before deciding that he was unable to bowl comfortably and went out again to never return.

Ashwin has been India’s second highest wicket-taker in the ODI format in 2015 with 21 scalps from 13 games, averaging just 24.57.

The right-hander clobbered his sixth six off the final ball of the innings to bring up his 21st ODI century as South Africa plundered 109 runs from the last 10 overs.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed the news via its official Twitter account. “Harbhajan Singh has been included in the squad and will join the team before the second match in Indore on Wednesday.” the BCCI said in a statement.

Since making his comeback to the Indian ODI side in the series against Zimbabwe in July this year, Singh has only taken four wickets from three games.