NEW DELHI: India skipper Rohit Sharma will miss the first of the two Tests against Bangladesh due to his thumb injury, the country’s cricket board said on Saturday.

Fast bowler Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out of the series as they are yet to recover from their respective injuries.

“Rohit Sharma met with a specialist in Mumbai for his left thumb injury, which he sustained during the 2nd ODI against Bangladesh,” the Board of Control for Cricket on India said in a statement.

“The BCCI Medical Team will take a call on his availability for the second and final Test at a later stage.”

Bangladesh won the ODI series 2-1 but India did had a consolation victory in the third. KL Rahul, who skippered them in that game, will lead the team in the first Test with Cheteshwar Pujara as his deputy.

Uncapped batsman Abh­im­anyu Easwaran has been named Rohit’s replacement for the opener starting Dece­mber 14 in Chittagong.

The national selectors have named Navdeep Saini and Saurabh Kumar as repla­cements for Shami (shoulder injury) and Jadeja (knee inj­u­ry) Fast bowler Jaydev Una­d­kat has also been added to the 17-member squad for the matches, which will be part of the World Test Championship.

Unadkat, a left-arm quick, played his only Test in 2010 and last played a Twenty20 int­e­rnational for India in 2018.

Squad: KL Rahul (captain), Shubman Gill, Chete­shwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ravicha­ndran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2022