India batter B Sai Sudharsan ruled out of SL Test series because of toe stress fracture

India batter B Sai Sudharsan has been ruled out of the two-Test series in Sri Lanka because of a toe stress fracture, Cricinfo has learnt.

Sai Sudharsan had been named in the initial squad of 15 but his and Jasprit Bumrah’s participation was subject to a fitness clearance from the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE). Bumrah was ruled out last week because of his knee issue and replaced with Auqib Nabi, and the update on Sai Sudharsan has compounded matters for the already depleted India team in Sri Lanka. A replacement for Sai Sudharsan, who did not travel with the squad to Sri Lanka, has not been named yet.

Cricinfo has learned that Sai Sudharsan had a toe stress fracture recently and headed to the CoE immediately after returning from the India A tour of Sri Lanka in July, where had scores of 132, 7*, 168 and 25*. When the selectors included him in the Test squad initially, it was with the understanding that Sai Sudharsan would recover in time for the first Test which starts in Galle on August 15. However, he could not recover in time as he was unable to sprint at full pace even when he was on the mend.

The good news from that tour game for India is that Devdutt Padikkal has scored a brisk century from No. 3, which gives India a ready option for the spot, which had belonged to Sai Sudharsan. India are also without the injured Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Akash Deep for the Test series, while Washington Sundar is unavailable at least for the first Test.

The two-Test series will start on August 15 in Galle, with the second Test scheduled from August 23 at the SSC in Colombo. It will be part of the WTC in which India currently sit in fifth spot after four wins and as many losses from nine games.

India squad for Sri Lanka Tests

Shubman Gill (capt), KL Rahul (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain, Auqib Nabi

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