Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who was supposed to make his comeback to the India team after a lengthy injury lay-off, has been ruled out of the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, slated to get underway on January 10 in Guwahati.

On the eve of the opening ODI, BCCI issued a statement, confirming that Bumrah won’t take part in the 50-over series as he needs some more time to build bowling resilience.

Notably, Bumrah is struggling with the recurring back injury lately. He missed the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup due to the same problem last year.

Addressing the press conference, India skipper Rohit Sharma on Monday (January 9) revealed that the right-arm pacer felt some stiffness while bowling at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.

“It is a very unfortunate incident with him. Poor guy has been working hard at the NCA all this time. Just when he got back to full fitness - he had started bowling and everything - it happened in the last two days. He felt a little bit of stiffness in his back. It is nothing major, just a stiffness and when Bumrah says anything, we have to be very cautious about it. That is what we did. I thought it was important for us to make the decision then to just pull him out," Rohit told reporters ahead of the first ODI.

"When we named him, he was in the process of getting his workloads up. He was bowling in the nets. Just felt a little bit of stiffness in the back so we pulled him out. We need to be very careful with him. He had a major injury before the World Cup so we just need to be careful," he added.

In its statement, the BCCI said that the selectors have not named a replacement for Jasprit Bumrah, who was last seen in action during the home T20I series against Australia in September 2022.