Injured pacer Ishant ruled out of World Cup

Mumbai, Feb 7 (IANS) India pacer Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the 2015 World Cup due to a knee injury.

He is expected to return to India next week.

Seamer Mohit Sharma, who is currently with the team in Australia, is likely to take his place in the side. He was named as the stand-by for the injured pacer by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) earlier.

"It is confirmed that he has been ruled out. He couldn't recover from his injury so he had to be ruled out," a BCCI source told IANS.

Four injured cricketers - Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja - took part in fitness tests here to determine their fitness.

"Rohit was suffering from a hamstring injury while Bhuvneshwar Kumar had an ankle complaint. Ravindra Jadeja was bothered by a shoulder pain. While they passed the fitness tests conducted separately for each of them, it was the tall pacer that was unable to endure the rigorousness of the tests.

Ishant spent more than a month away from competitive cricket due to the niggling pain after injuring his knee again before the ODI against England in Perth.

Ishant last bowled in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in December. He was picked for the Australia Day One-Day International (ODI) in Sydney but the match was abandoned due to rain.

It was the only game he was picked for in the tri-series against Australia and England.

The BCCI are yet to issue an official statement on Ishant's withdrawal from the team.

India play the warm-up games against Australia and Afghanistan before beginning their Cup defence against Pakistan Feb 15.