India’s big blow in the lead-up to their two-match Test series against Sri Lanka has arrived as speedster Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of action as he is unable to get over his left knee injury.
The rapid bowler was originally included in the Indian batting line-up with the proviso that he passes the medical fitness check by the Assam-based BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE). But Bumrah failed to make up for it after rehabilitation and has now been dropped from the team.
When Bumrah’s left knee was injured in the match, it put an end to his hopes.
The injury originated from the second ODI against England where Bumrah had a blow to his left knee while he was in the field in Cardiff. He had to sit out the third ODI at Lord’s as a result of the discomfort and weeks of rehab have not helped either, so he has not recovered enough to take part in the Sri Lanka tour.
However, the 32-year-old still had pain in the series, and the team management and medical team decided against having him in the series.
India suffered the loss of their premier Test batsman.
Bumrah’s absence is a big blow for the India Test team that is trying to gather momentum for the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
The top-ranked Test bowler has been on a cautious workload since the Australia-bound tour of Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2024-25 where he sustained the injury.
In that workload management, Bumrah was rested for the one-off Test series against Afghanistan after playing just three of the five Tests in England.
Updated India Squad for Sri Lanka Tests
India will go to Sri Lanka without their pacemaker. The new team is made up of the following:
Shubman Gill (captain) KL Rahul (vice-captain) Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar and Devdutt Padikkal and Saransh Jain.
Sai Sudharsan continues to be cleared for fitness.
India will open against Sri Lanka on the first Test on August 15 in Galle while the second Test starts on the August 23 in Colombo. With the absence of Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna are likely to be in charge of the pace attack.
