Bhuvi, Bumrah injury hurts India pace pack
Thumb injury rules out Bumrah for first Test, Bhuvneshwar to be assessed for lower back trouble
NEW DELHI: The Indian cricket team will begin their England Test series with a weakened pace arsenal. Key bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah are set to miss the start of the fivetest series in England that kicks off at Edgbaston, Birmingham on August 1 due to injury.
The India selectors named an expanded 18-member squad for the first three Tests on Wednesday, but bad news came in the form of Bhuvneshwar. The swing bowler, who can be a handful with the new ball even in a dry English summer, aggravated a back problem during the final ODI against England on Tuesday.
Bumrah, who made an impressive Test debut in South Africa early this year, will not be available for at least the first Test as he recovers following surgery for the thumb injury suffered in the first T20 against Ireland.
Bhuvneshwar has struggled with fitness and missed few IPL games too. He also sat out the final T20 against England and the first two ODIS due to the back condition. With no Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar was brought back for Tuesday’s decider. He scored 21 but returned 0/49, struggling with his delivery stride and unable to produce swing.
A BCCI announcement of the squad for the first three Tests only said he was being assessed by the medical team but at best Bhuvneshwar may be available for the second Test at Lord’s. He is not part of the squad named.
Bumrah’s fitness too will be assessed before the second Test, which leaves the India pace pack unsettled. Mohammed Shami, embroiled in personal issues, missed most of IPL and failed the fitness test for the one-off Test against Afghanistan last month. He is back, but his match-readiness will have to be seen in India’s lone four-day warm-up tie against Essex at Chelmsford from July 25. That makes it vital that Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma
hit the ground running at Edgbaston with rookie Shardul Thakur, the other pacer in the squad. Umesh was not played in any of the three South Africa Tests despite a solid run in the preceding home Tests, and was left out of the final ODI at Leeds despite Bhuvi’s fitness problems.
SAHA OUT, PANT IN
India’s main wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has lost his fitness race following a serious thumb injury and is out. The selectors have expectedly named Dinesh Karthik — who kept wickets against Afghanistan after Parthiv Patel took over from an unfit Saha in South Africa — with Rishabh Pant getting a maiden call-up to the Test squad as second keeper.
Pant, in the India A squad in England, has played four T20s for India and his inclusion suggests a change of view by the selectors after his technique was questioned a few months back by chief selector MSK Prasad, a former India keeper. Young chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav was named too. But the ease with which Joe Root tackled him in the last two ODIS may have left the selectors with much to ponder.
There were no surprises in the batting department of the side to be led by Virat Kohli, who skipped the Afghanistan Test but a neck injury scuppered plans for a stint with Surrey.