New Delhi: Premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah is set to miss India’s two-Test tour of Sri Lanka as he is yet to recover from his knee injury.
Jammu and Kashmir seamer Auqib Nabi is all set to earn his maiden call-up to the national team.
Nabi will be the third player after Parvez Rasool and Umran Malik to get a senior national call-up. Rasool and Malik were summoned in white ball set-up.
“Bumrah is not fit and Auqib Nabi has been approved as his replacement,” a BCCI source informed PTI.
Nabi has picked 100-plus wickets in the last two Ranji Trophy seasons and was the chief architect of J&K’s red-ball triumph. He is also a handy customer with the bat.
The swelling in Bumrah’s knee seems to be more serious than it initially looked and the Sports Science team at Bengaluru’s Centre of Excellence doesn’t want to rush the seasoned pacer to the grind of international cricket, keeping in mind a packed calendar ahead.
“The two people who run the COE, Dhananjay and Thulasi have decided that Bumrah can’t be risked. It must be said that initially both team management and selection committee were made to believe that Bumrah could be available for at least one of the two Tests,” a BCCI source informed, citing how COE’s functioning have left everyone baffled.
The Sri Lanka series begins on August 15 in Galle.
The 32-year-old had missed out on the third ODI against England at the Lord’s last month after sustaining an impact injury.
He recently reported at the Centre Of Excellence in Bengaluru and was expected to be match-fit by the time Sri Lanka series begins.
However, it has been learnt that Bumrah is still feeling some discomfort.
Even if he gets fit before August 15 or the second Test starting at Colombo on August 23, the medical team isn’t sure if a Test match is the correct format to bring him back due to the massive workload on the docile tracks.
It will be interesting to see if selectors pick Jammu and Kashmir pacer Auqib Nabi or Vidarbha’s Yash Thakur as Bumrah’s replacement.
India are already without Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, and Washington Sundar — all sidelined by hamstring niggles — will miss at least the first Test.
In case of B Sai Sudharsan, he is batting 75 minutes in nets at COE as he is steadily recovering from a foot injury that he sustained during the recent India A series in the Island nation.
It will be known in the next few days whether he will be available or not for the series against Lanka.
