KL Rahul ruled out of Ranchi Test against England

KL Rahul has officially been ruled out of the fourth Test against England in Ranchi due to a quadriceps injury that has not fully healed, forcing him to miss the games in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot.

Despite featuring in the series opener in Hyderabad and registering impressive scores of 86 and 22, Rahul sustained an injury that sidelined him for the second Test. Although a BCCI release ahead of the third Test stated that Rahul had reached 90% match fitness and was progressing well at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, his availability for the final Test in Dharamsala remains uncertain pending fitness assessment.

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Devdutt Padikkal, the promising Karnataka batter, retains his place in the squad after earning a maiden call-up to the Test squad on the back of impressive first-class performances.

Rahul, plagued by fitness issues in the past 10 months, underwent thigh surgery following an injury in IPL 2023 and missed several games. However, he had displayed excellent form across both Test and ODI formats since his return at the Asia Cup before this recent setback.

In other news, pace ace Jasprit Bumrah will miss the Ranchi Test after being granted rest by the team management. This decision aims to manage Bumrah’s workload ahead of the upcoming IPL campaign and the T20 World Cup in West Indies & the USA. Mukesh Kumar, who impressed with a career-best match haul of 10 for 50 for Bengal against Bihar in the Ranji Trophy, will rejoin the squad after being released for the third Test. His uncapped statemate Akash Deep completes the seam bowling trio in the squad.

The India squad for the fourth Test includes Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, and Akash Deep.