Selectors await fitness updates on Washington Sundar and Jasprit Bumrah as they finalise India’s squad for the two Test series against Sri Lanka.
The Indian squad for the Sri Lanka Tests will be announced on Tuesday and the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel is dealing with a plethora of fitness issues plaguing the national team at the moment.
Senior speedster Jasprit Bumrah, who had missed the final ODI against England at Lord’s due to an impact injury, is also expected to appear for a fitness Test.
It is understood that the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru has released the fitness updates as per which both Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy are not in selection contention for the red ball series.
They sustained hamstring injuries at different times and are currently in the middle of intense rehabilitation programme.
“Washington will only be fit by the second Test and it is there to be seen if selectors pick him for one game subject to fitness. Else, they will have to look for a fourth option beyond Ravindra Jadeja, Manav Suthar and Kuldeep Yadav. If they pick Harsh Dubey, it will be three bowlers with identical skill sets,” a BCCI source privy to selection matters told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The options available are off-spinner Saransh Jain, who is also a handy lower middle-order batter.
Saransh did pretty well against Sri Lanka A where he took six wickets in two games and scored a 70 not out.
Knowing Gambhir’s propensity to have a handy batter till No.8, Saransh won’t be a bad option.
The other options are wrist spinners Zeeshan Ansari and Vipraj Nigam but men who matter believe that Nigam’s game is more suited to white ball format.