KL Rahul, who has been recovering from an injury, has been ruled out of the Pallekele leg of India’s Asia Cup campaign – matches against Pakistan and Nepal.

He will not travel to Sri Lanka on Wednesday with the rest of India’s squad and, instead, continue to work with the physios at Bengaluru’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) in a bid to be “fully fit” and available for the Super Four stage of the competition. Rahul will undergo a fitness assessment on September 4 before a call on his travel to Sri Lanka is taken.

Head coach Rahul Dravid said Rahul had been “progressing really well” and that the team management doesn’t see his unavailability for the early part of the Asia Cup as a setback.

“From our perspective, it’s only two less games that he is going to [play],” Rahul said at the conclusion of India’s conditioning camp in Alur, near Bengaluru. “He is batting really well, he’s keeping… well, he is doing everything. It’s just a slightly more cautious approach with him leading into the World Cup.

“He’ll have a couple of match simulations over the course of the next few days, which gives him a little bit of a longer time out there in the middle. We are hoping that it should be only two games that he misses, and then he should be available for the later part of the tour.

“There is an Australia series as well, so I’m not too worried about it. He’s an experienced player, both him and Shreyas [Iyer, who is also on a comeback trail after a long injury layoff] have played a lot of cricket. They are very experienced players and hopefully we can give him the game time.”

Rahul’s unavailability for part of the Asia Cup raises the question about his participation in the World Cup – he hasn’t played competitively since early May, when he picked up the injury during the IPL. The plan is for the selectors to finalise the 15 for the World Cup after India’s second match in the Asia Cup, on September 4 against Nepal, to meet the September 5 deadline set by ICC to submit the World Cup squads.

When the squad for the Asia Cup was named on August 21, Rahul was only deemed conditionally fit. While he had fully recovered from the thigh injury he sustained during IPL 2023, which required surgery, Rahul picked up a “minor niggle” subsequently, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had said.

At the time, the NCA medical team was understood to have been satisfied with Rahul’s batting workload, but were concerned about his wicketkeeping after he complained of soreness after one of the practice games.

Rahul displays batting form in Alur nets

On Tuesday, the final day of India’s six-day camp in Alur, Rahul hit the nets and batted for nearly 35 minutes, facing up to pace, spin and the throwdown specialists after some light warm-up drills. He didn’t keep wickets, though.

Rahul began his session against spin, presumably because of his role at No. 5. He seemed in sparkling form; he used his feet well in stepping out to hit legspinner Mayank Markande against the turn, used the depth of the crease to nudge deliveries, and then appeared to bring out full-blooded sweeps against the two left-arm spinners R Sai Kishore and Manav Suthar.

Rahul then faced up to Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna in the second net against the new ball. Rahul’s focus seemed to be on aligning himself with the bounce, getting behind the line and playing straight or using the pace to steer the ball behind square.

Then, finally, he was at the throwdown specialist’s net, Rahul was seemingly trying and duck and get into good positions against the short ball. After the session, Rahul had a chat with Dravid and Virat Kohli.

Over the past couple of days, while Rahul hasn’t been in any physical discomfort the team management has carefully ensured his wicket keeping drills haven’t been too exhausting.

On Monday, he went through keeping drills that focused on sideways movements, especially to spin. However it was a brief session. He was also seen chatting with Rishabh Pant, who spent some time doing rehab and fitness drills with the team.

India have Ishan Kishan as a wicketkeeping option in the Asia Cup squad, while Sanju Samson has been named a travelling reserve.