India has suffered a major blow ahead of second Test vs England as its two top stars have been ruled out of the match in Visakhapatnam.
Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul both have been ruled out from the second Test against England, beginning 2 February due to injury.
Jadeja sustained a hamstring injury on the fourth day of the Hyderabad Test, while Rahul has complained of pain in his right quadriceps.
Three players have been added to India’s revised squad in their place – batter Sarfaraz Khan, all-rounder Washington Sundar and left-arm spinner Sourabh Kumar. All three players were part of India A’s ongoing series against England Lions.
Both Sarfaraz and Sourabh shone in the second unofficial Test between the sides with Sarfaraz hitting a 160-ball 161 and Sourabh picking up a five-for in the second innings as India A secured a win by an innings and 16 runs.
Sundar has been a regular for India in the white-ball format, made his debut in 2021 but has only played four Tests for the side all in the same year.
Both Sarfaraz and Sourabh are yet to play international cricket and could be in line for their potential debuts. Sarfaraz has been dominating the domestic circuit for the last few years and has racked up 3912 runs in 45 first-class matches, which include 14 centuries and 11 fifties with a high-score of 301*.
