The incident comes weeks after Shoaib Bashir's visa ordeal.
Three days ahead of the Test match, the Ben Stokes-led English side landed in Rajkot. Upon arrival at the airport, young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed was held by Indian immigration officials as he was carrying a single-entry visa, Hindustan Times reported.
A person holding a single-entry visa is not permitted to exit and re-enter the country. Notably, the England team travelled to UAE for a preparatory camp after the second Test as there was an extended break of 10 days for the start of the third Test.
“The England team has been advised to process the visa again which will be happening in the next two days. The player was allowed to enter the country with the rest of the team and he will be appearing in practice on Tuesday,” a BCCI official said, as quoted by Hindustan Times.
According to the report, the England touring contingent returned to India through an Abu Dhabi-Rajkot chartered flight. Since this was the first instance of an international flight directly landing in Rajkot, a temporary immigration counter was set up with officials from Jamnagar overseeing the work.
Rehan was the only one from the English camp who did not have the right visa. He featured in the first two Tests against India and returned with a total of eight wickets.
Rehan’s episode at the Rajkot airport comes weeks after Shoaib Bashir's delayed arrival in India because of the late issuing of visa. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) anticipated resolving the matter in Abu Dhabi during a pre-series camp but ultimately had to send Bashir back to the UK for further paperwork.
As a result, Bashir, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, was ruled out of the opening Test in Hyderabad and he went on to make his Test debut in Vizag.
Like Bashir, Rehan is also a British citizen of Pakistani heritage but he didn’t face any issue in entering India because of a visa he had secured in October 2023 as a stand-by for England's ODI World Cup squad.
The five-match Test series between India and England is evenly poised at 1-1. While the Three Lions won the series opener in Hyderabad by 28 runs, the hosts bounced back to win the second Test in Vizag by 106 runs.
(With Hindustan Times inputs)