India will play two Tests in Sri Lanka starting on August 15 in Galle.
India pacer Jasprit Bumrah is likely to miss the upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka as he is yet to recover from his knee injury. Bumrah had suffered this knee injury since the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
Bumrah has not bowled since the second ODI between England and India in Cardiff. He has been rehabbing at the BCCI CoE, where the BCCI medical team has advised Bumrah not to rush back to action as he needs more time to completely recover from the left knee issue.
According to the strategy created by the BCCI medical team for his long-term fitness, Bumrah received a knee injection right after the England series ended.
This week, Bumrah arrived at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, where he was put through fitness testing. It is known that the medical staff believed that if Bumrah started bowling again immediately, he might worsen the condition and have to miss a lot of time.
“The two people who run the COE, Dhananjay and Thulasi, have decided that Bumrah can't be risked. It must be said that initially both team management and the selection committee were made to believe that Bumrah could be available for at least one of the two Tests,” a BCCI source informed as per PTI.
And now reports have stated that Jammu and Kashmir seamer Auqib Nabi is all set to earn his maiden call-up to the national team. After Umran Malik and Parvez Rasool, Nabi will be the third player from J&K to receive a senior national call-up.
“Bumrah is not fit, and Auqib Nabi has been approved as his replacement,” the source added.
Nabi has taken more than 100 wickets in the last two Ranji Trophy seasons and was the driving force behind J&K's first Ranji Trophy victory. He's also a handy customer with a bat.
India is already without Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, and Washington Sundar—all sidelined by hamstring naggles—who will miss at least the first Test. Even better, Sai Sudharsan batted in nets at the CoE for 75 minutes as he recovers from a foot injury he suffered during the India A series in Sri Lanka.