Jasprit Bumrah to miss Sri Lanka Test series due to knee discomfort

Jasprit Bumrah is set to miss the two Test series against Sri Lanka, starting in Galle on August 15. TimesofIndia.com has learnt that the seamer continues to feel discomfort in his left knee after an initial assessment at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE). The stakeholders have decided that it's not safe to push him back into cricket and advised a full recovery. As reported earlier this week, the BCCI medical team advised Bumrah to get an injection for the knee issue that flared up during the business end of the T20 World Cup. The 32-year-old was given the injection as scheduled last month but complete recovery may take longer than initially anticipated. Discussions occurred about having him ready for the second Test in Colombo but the medical team at the CoE doesn't want to take any chances. The plan was always to wait longer than usual and he was never scheduled to assemble in Mumbai on August 3 for the August 4 departure. "There have been instances in the past where players have been rushed back to cricket, and have broken down. You can't take that risk again. Especially with Bumrah. So complete recovery is the only goal and there is lot of cricket left in the year. There is Asian Games, the tour of New Zealand and even the Border-Gavaskar Trophy early next year," explained a well-placed source.

Bumrah was named in the Shubman Gill-led squad subject to fitness clearance and now the men's senior selection committee, chaired by Ajit Agarkar, is likely to name a replacement. Auqib Nabi is the front-runner as he also trained with the team before the one-off Test against Afghanistan and toured Sri Lanka with the India A team last month. The 29-year-old, who has been a consistent performer for Jammu & Kashmir in the domestic circuit, picked six wickets in the two fixtures in the island nation. India's pace department currently has Mohammed Siraj, Gurnoor Brar and Prasidh Krishna.