England’s prospects in India have received a significant further boost with both Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul ruled out for the second Test that starts in Visakhapatnam on Friday.
As well as leading his side to an astonishing 28-run victory in the first Test, Ben Stokes may have inflicted another blow after his athletic backhanded run-out of Jadeja on the fourth day. The all-rounder walked off clutching his left hamstring and a scan confirmed the injury, albeit with India not stating publicly its severity.
Jadeja, who claimed five wickets and top-scored in his side’s first innings with 87, is joined on the sidelines by Rahul after the batter reported “right quadriceps pain”. With Virat Kohli already out of the second Test for personal reasons, and Mohammad Shami yet to return from an ankle injury, things have opened up further for England.
How India respond is the big question – not least in terms of the pitch in Visakhapatnam – after Ollie Pope’s second-innings 196 underlined the success of a plan to sweep India’s spinners. “They have the potential to do any wicket they want,” said Mark Wood, who put in a shift as England’s solitary seamer but went wicketless across two innings.
“But now, we’ve given them something to think about. It’s not a foregone conclusion that we are going to turn up here and they’re going to spin us out. Ollie Pope has played a fantastic knock, they’re now going to have to go analyse – like we would do if things didn’t go well – how they are going to try and combat that.”
England, due to fly to the east coast on Tuesday, appear upbeat about their one fitness doubt: the haematoma that Jack Leach developed in his left knee after taking a tumble in the field on the first evening in Hyderabad. A further dive in the field on day two of the match seemingly compounded the issue.
Leach, only just back after seven months out with a lower back stress fracture, battled through the pain to send down 36 overs in the match but Stokes used him predominantly in short spells. Leach was seen on Monday in the team hotel with the knee still heavily strapped but was said to be “improving” with regular icing.
In response to the Jadeja injury, India have called up two all-rounders in Washington Sundar, an off-spinner, and the uncapped slow left-armer Sourabh Kumar. Either would represent a like-for-like replacement in terms of the team’s balance, with Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist-spinner who bats lower down, the alternative.
None, however, has the back catalogue of Jadeja, who on home soil averages 40 with the bat and has taken 199 wickets at 21 runs apiece. Rahul, who made 84 on the second day in Hyderabad, has been replaced by Sarfaraz Khan, a right-hander who averages 69 in first-class cricket and made 161 against England Lions last week.
As well as injury news, the wash-up from the first Test included the International Cricket Council issuing Jasprit Bumrah with an official reprimand and one demerit point on his disciplinary record for “inappropriate physical contact” on the field.
The incident came in the 81st over of England’s second innings when Pope set off down the pitch for a run and Bumrah, the bowler, stepped to his right and their shoulders clashed. Bumrah, who had a clean record up to this point, admitted to the level-one breach of the ICC’s code of conduct, meaning no hearing was required.
