David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd has called for “common sense” to allow India to field a substitute in place of Ravichandran Ashwin.

News broke overnight that Ashwin would immediately depart from the India squad for the Rajkot Test against England in order to tend to a family emergency.

After a request for privacy from the BCCI, their vice-president, Rajeev Shukla, confirmed on X that Ashwin's mother had fallen ill. 

The playing conditions of ICC events state that replacement players are only allowed in the event of a concussion, meaning that while India will be allowed to play with a substitute fielder, they will be down to ten men when batting and be without their star spinner, who claimed his 500th Test wicket on day two.

"According to the match regulations and the laws of the game, he cannot be replaced," said Neil Manthorp on talkSPORT 2's live and exclusive coverage. "It's not like a concussion substitute, there's no such thing as a compassion substitute which seems a little bit out of sync with the times."

It is possible for Ashwin to return to the Test at a later date, but in the meantime, India will be a man down for the remainder of the Rajkot Test.

"Surely he should have a substitute for a family emergency and he's not going to take any further part," said David 'Bumble' Lloyd. "I'm sure Jeff Crowe, who's the match referee on behalf of the ICC, would have been in touch with the ICC putting that question to them.

"There's got to be compassion, there's got to be common sense. And I'd suspect England would say they have no problem with it at all.

"It's nothing to do with England, but I'm sure Ben and the team and the management would say that's fine. It's a family matter."

Ashwin's absence is the latest in a number of high-profile absences from this series, with both Virat Kohli and Harry Brook missing the series for personal reasons, along with a number of injuries impacting both teams.