Jasprit Bumrah will not travel to Sri Lanka for India's two-Test series in August. Cricinfo has learned that the BCCI medical team has advised Bumrah not to rush back to action as he needs more time to completely recover from the left knee issue he has been nursing since the T20 World Cup earlier this year. No replacement has been named yet.
Bumrah has not bowled since the second ODI of the England series in Cardiff on July 16. He was ruled out of the final match of the series, played at Lord's, with BCCI saying an impact injury while fielding in the Cardiff ODI was the reason.
It is learned that immediately after the England series got over, Bumrah took an injection to the knee based on the plan drawn up by the BCCI medical team for his long-term fitness.
Bumrah reached the BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru this week and underwent fitness tests. It is understood that the medical team felt Bumrah could risk sitting out for an extended period if he returned to bowling right away as that could potentially aggravate the issue.
Details of the exact nature and extent of the injury are yet to be confirmed, but Bumrah had travelled to the CoE in late March as well to get conditioning and fitness clearances for the IPL, which had come a day prior to Mumbai Indians' season opener. Bumrah played 13 matches in the IPL season, sitting out MI's last fixture.
India are already without the services of Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy, who are out with hamstring and quadriceps injuries, respectively. Washington Sundar has also been ruled out of the first Test with a hamstring injury, while Akash Deep is in the middle of a long layoff following stress reactions on his back.
Immediately after India lost the ODI series in England, captain Shubman Gill had put the spotlight on the frequent injuries the India players had been going down with, saying "if after every match some player is missing then somewhere we are missing a trick".
Gill's larger fear was if the trend continued, it would have a severe impact on India's performance at the 2027 World Cup, which will be played next October-November in southern Africa. Gill had said that if his players were not able to "finish a two-to-three-match series", it would be a concern at the global tournament, where teams will play a minimum of 11 games.
"It becomes a little difficult that you come to the ground on the morning and you come to know a player has a niggle, then it's almost like do you want to take a chance," Gill said. “Some player is 80% fit, you are playing with five bowlers and if this player comes out after bowling five overs, then who will bowl? This is difficult. So as a group we need improved our fitness and all those things.”
The first Test in Sri Lanka begins on August 15 in Galle and the second on August 23 at the SSC in Colombo. Ahead of the series, the team will play a three-day practice match in Colombo, starting on August 7.
The series in Sri Lanka is India's first in the World Test Championship cycle since the 2-0 home defeat to South Africa in November. Before that, they had drawn a five-Test series in England 2-2 and beaten West Indies 2-0 at home. India are fifth in the WTC standings, while Sri Lanka are sixth.
India squad for Sri Lanka Tests
Shubman Gill (capt), KL Rahul (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (wk), B Sai Sudharsan*, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain
Source: Cricinfo
– Agencies
