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Bengal Cricket Academy Ground: With India suffering a setback ahead of kickstarting their Men’s T20 World Cup title defence due to suspense over the participation of pace-bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana, chatter has picked up over who could be his replacement for the showpiece event.

Rana, who has nine T20I caps so far, suffered a knee injury during India's warm-up match against South Africa at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. He was seen limping off the field while clutching his knee during the warm-up match after bowling just one over, where he conceded 16 runs and aborted twice in his run-up.

While India skipper Suryakumar Yadav insisted that Rana hasn’t been ruled out yet, sources told IANS on Friday that senior pacer Mohammed Siraj is the frontrunner to replace him, while seam-bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and fast bowler Prasidh Krishna are also under consideration.