Virender Sehwag being attended to by the physio after the ankle injury on Sunday

Calcutta/Dambulla: Virender Sehwag was on Monday ruled out of the one-day series against Sri Lanka due to an ankle injury.

Dilip Vengsarkar, chairman of national selectors, said that since there are 15 players still in the squad they are not looking for a replacement. The team management, too, hadn’t asked for one.

“Let’s see how the next match (in Dambulla again) goes… We can then take a call,” Vengsarkar said.

“Sehwag’s injury is bad and he will miss the remainder of the series,” team manager Sanjay Desai said.

Sehwag, who sustained the injury during a practice session, was ruled out of the opener in the five-match ODI series on Sunday itself. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni during his press conference after the defeat in the first ODI, said the team would miss the in-form opener.

“He was the batsman in top form. Gautam (Gambhir) also got out early. We lost the top two performers of the Test series. But that’s the way it is…

“You can’t really stop and think about the guys you will be missing in the series. Rather than that you will have to fill in that space. Because that is the only way your team can win,” the Team India captain added.

Former Indian Under-19 captain Virat Kohli, who replaced Sehwag at the top of the order for the opening match, made just 12 before he was trapped leg before wicket by Nuwan Kulasekara.

Sehwag’s missing out on the series will come as a huge blow to the Indian team already reeling under the Test defeat and another comprehensive loss on Monday.

The Indian opener stayed put at the hotel on Monday and Dhoni told the media that he was in bad shape.

Sehwag was India’s top scorer in the Test series and played a big role in India’s win the Galle Test with an unbeaten double century.

Sehwag scored 344 runs in the Test series. Along with Gambhir, he was one of the few Indian batsmen who looked assured against Sri Lanka’s spin duo of Muttiah Muralidharan and Ajantha Mendis.

India are already without Sachin Tendulkar, who withdrew from the ODI series after sustaining an elbow injury during the final Test in Colombo.