Jasprit Bumrah ruled out of Test series, Auqib is added in squad for two-match Test series against Sri Lanka which will be played from November 12 to 24. The 29-year-old pacer was rewarded with his maiden senior India call-up after a brilliant domestic season and if he plays, could potentially become the first cricketer of Jammu & Kashmir to play Test cricket for the country.
Nabi’s pick follows a scorching run in the home turf. In the last two seasons of the Ranji Trophy, he has taken 104 wickets in total – and among those were 60 wickets in the season just completing other than 3 five-for against different sides. His performances were instrumental in guiding Jammu & Kashmir to their first Ranji Trophy title. Also, he bolstered his claim in the recently concluded India A tour to Sri Lanka where he picked up six wickets from two first-class games.
Meanwhile Jasprit Bumrah has been declared unfit for the Sri Lanka tour as he hasn’t recovered from the left knee injury sustained on the second ODI against England in Cardiff last month. It is an injury associated with the fitness issues that he has been grappling with since the T20 World Cup. The Indian team will leave for Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
The series comes months after India’s ongoing battles with injuries wherein their pace department has been ravaged and all-rounder Hardik Pandya is also a doubt over his fitness. Harshit Rana has been ruled out with a hamstring injury, while Nitish Kumar Reddy is also unavailable due to quadriceps strain. All-rounder Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the first Test due to hamstring trouble and Akash Deep remains on the comeback trail from stress-related back injuries.
India’s pace attack for the Sri Lanka series will see Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar and newcomer Auqib Nabi in place of Bumrah. The first of the two Test matches will be played in Galle from August 15, ahead of which an Indian team arrives for a three-day warm-up game in Colombo beginning on August 7 before they kick-off their Test series.