Team India suffered a double blow ahead of the second Test against England as KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out with injuries for the match starting February 2 in Vizag.
Jadeja had injured his hamstring after getting run out in the final innings of the Hyderabad Test while Rahul complained of a right quadriceps pain. The BCCI medical team will be monitoring the injured duo.
"The Men's Selection Committee have added Sarfaraz Khan, Saurabh Kumar and Washington Sundar to India's squad," the Indian cricket board informed.
India already have two spinners in their squad in the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin and Azar Patel, both of whom played the first Test.
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The latest injury concerns mean that India will be missing three key players in the second Test in Jadeja, Rahul and Virat Kohli, who had pulled out of the first two matches due to personal reasons.
Deserving candidates called up
Sarfaraz Khan has finally been rewarded with a maiden India call-up after his consistent run with the bat for Mumbai in domestic cricket.
Both him and Saurabh Kumar played the unofficial Tests against the England Linos in Ahmedabad earlier this month in which they both scored a lot of runs.
Sarfaraz had scores of 161, 4 and 55 in the two games while Kumar made 77 and picked up 6 wickets in the second Test that he played in.
Who is Saurabh Kumar?
Saurabh is a 30-year-old left-handed batter and left-arm spin bowler who has played 68 first-class matches and amassed 2061 runs along with 290 wickets.
Sarfaraz finally rewarded
Sarfaraz on the other hand, had been knocking on the national selectors' doors for quite some years now. The 26-year-old was recently honoured with the Madhavrao Scindia award by the BCCI for being the highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy 2021-22 season.
He faced repeated selection snubs in Test cricket over the last couple of years but has finally been rewarded for his consistency in red-ball cricket.
India's updated Squad for 2nd Test vs England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Saurabh Kumar.
Changes in India A squad
"Saransh Jain has been named as a replacement for Washington Sundar in the India A squad for the third and final multi-day game against England Lions starting February 1, 2024 in Ahmedabad.
"Avesh Khan will continue to travel with his Ranji Trophy team, Madhya Pradesh and will join the Test squad if required," the BCCI further informed.
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