Wriddhiman Saha will miss the England Test due to injury.
A right shoulder injury has ruled Wriddhiman Saha out of the five-Test series in England. India’s ‘first-choice’ ‘keeper in red-ball cricket has recovered from the thumb injury that he suffered during the IPL Qualifier 2 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 25.
According to a source, the shoulder injury occurred about five months ago, following Saha’s return from the South Africa tour earlier this year. He played through the pain in the IPL, taking injections. Now, things have aggravated to the extent that the 33-year-old may need surgery to cure the problem.
“He (Saha) has been suffering from this (shoulder injury) for the last five-odd months. This happened after he returned from South Africa. It was detected during the IPL. He played the IPL taking precautions and injections. Now it’s not responding (to injections),” the source told this paper, adding: “The injury is preventing his range (arm-stretch). His thumb is OK.”
It is learnt that the BCCI medical team is currently assessing Saha’s scan and MRI reports and they will decide “in a few days” whether surgery would be required. Incidentally, Saha had pulled his left hamstring during the Tests in South Africa. He claimed a record 10 dismissals in Cape Town but missed the next two Tests.
India’s squad (for the first three Tests): Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur.