Wriddhiman Saha yet to recover from injury, likely to miss England Test series

The BCCI is expected to announce the squad for the Test series on Monday

Team India’s much-awaited Tests series against England is scheduled to commence from August 1 and two weeks ahead, the team has received a huge blow. Test wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha is likely to miss the 5-match rubber as he has not yet recovered fully from his thumb injury.

Saha hurt his left thumb during the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). As a result, he not only missed the second leg of the tournament including the final but also the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June.

While considering Saha’s case ahead of the Afghanistan Test in June, the BCCI notified that his recovery would take five to six weeks. But as learned from the reports, Saha is not perfectly fit to play in England.

Now if Saha fails to make the England Test series, the situation might favour Dinesh Karthik to take the responsibility behind the wickets. In that case, Parthiv Patel, who played in the Test series earlier this year in South Africa, might also be included as reserve keeper

The BCCI is expected to announce the squad for the Test series on Monday. On the other hand, Test series, skipper Virat Kohli has indicated the inclusion of the wrist spinner duo – Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav in the squad. Kuldeep has been featured in two Tests for India while Chahal is yet to make his debut.

India are presently playing the three-match ODI series that is levelled at 1-1 after the visitors lost the Lord’s encounter on Saturday.

Here's is the schedule of 5-match Test series starting from August 1

1st Test: August 1, Edgbaston, Birmingham

2nd Test: August 9, Lord's, London

3rd Test: August 18, Trent Bridge, Nottingham

4th Test: August 30, The Rose Bowl, Southampton

5th Test: September 7, Kennington Oval, London