Sunil Subramaniam, the India team manager, declared about Dhawan's absence, "Shikhar has a fracture at the base of his first metacarpal on his left hand. Following several specialist opinions, he will remain in cast until July - mid-July - which rules him out of the ICC World Cup 2019."

Dhawan was struck on his thumb by a bouncer from Pat Cummins during India’s second match of the campaign on June 9. He went to strike a match-winning 117 at The Oval after the medical staff allowed him to bat on having briefly attended to him on the field. India won by 36 runs as Dhawan was thus chosen as the Man of the Match.

Immediately after it was learnt that Dhawan would be missing at least two games, the Indian team management had flown in Pant as cover while further awaiting to hear on his injury. While India's next match against New Zealand was washed out, KL Rahul took Dhawan's place at the top of the order against Pakistan and hit 57 in a stand of 136 with Rohit Sharma.

Pant, 21, had initially missed out on selection with India preferring a more experienced Dinesh Karthik for the middle-order. Pant has so far played 5 ODIs, the last of which came against Australia at Delhi. Though his highest score remains only 36 in four innings, his explosive attitude - 93 runs at a strike rate of 130.99 - and the fact that he could provide India with a left-right combination have worked in his favour.

India next face Afghanistan at Southampton on June 22, having won three out of their four matches with the match against New Zealand at Trent Bridge getting rained out.