Kolkata : Indian star pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of Sri Lanka Test series starting from August 15 with a knee injury.
BCCI Medical team has advised Bumrah not to rush back to action as he needs more time to completely recover from the left knee issue he has been nursing since the T20 World Cup earlier this year. No replacement has been named yet.
Bumrah has not bowled since the second ODI of the England series in Cardiff on July 16. He was ruled out of the final match of the series, played at Lord’s, with BCCI saying an impact injury while fielding in the Cardiff ODI was the reason.
It is learned that immediately after the England series got over, Bumrah took an injection to the knee based on the plan drawn up by the BCCI medical team for his long-term fitness.
Bumrah reached the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru this week and underwent fitness tests. It is understood that the medical team felt Bumrah could risk sitting out for an extended period if he returned to bowling right away as that could potentially aggravate the issue.
Details of the exact nature and extent of the injury are yet to be confirmed, but Bumrah had travelled to the CoE in late March as well to get conditioning and fitness clearances for the IPL, which had come a day prior to Mumbai Indians’ season opener. Bumrah played 13 matches in the IPL season, sitting out MI’s last fixture.
India are already without the services of Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy, who are out with hamstring and quadriceps injuries, respectively. Washington Sundar has also been ruled out of the first Test with a hamstring injury, while Akash Deep is in the middle of a long layoff following stress reactions on his back.
Immediately after India lost the ODI series in England, captain Shubman Gill had put the spotlight on the frequent injuries the India players had been going down with, saying “if after every match some player is missing then somewhere we are missing a trick”.
Gill’s larger fear was if the trend continued, it would have a severe impact on India’s performance at the 2027 World Cup, which will be played next October-November in southern Africa. Gill had said that if his players were not able to “finish a two-to-three-match series”, it would be a concern at the global tournament, where teams will play a minimum of 11 games.
“It becomes a little difficult that you come to the ground on the morning and you come to know a player has a niggle, then it’s almost like do you want to take a chance,” Gill said. “Some player is 80% fit, you are playing with five bowlers and if this player comes out after bowling five overs, then who will bowl? This is difficult. So as a group we need improved our fitness and all those things.”
“There have been instances in the past where players have been rushed back to cricket, and have broken down. You can’t take that risk again. Especially with Bumrah. So complete recovery is the only goal and there is lot of cricket left in the year. There is Asian Games, the tour of New Zealand and even the Border-Gavaskar Trophy early next year,” explained a well-placed source.
Who can replace Jasprit Bumrah for Sri Lanka series?
Bumrah was named in the Shubman Gill-led squad subject to fitness clearance and now the men’s senior selection committee, chaired by Ajit Agarkar, is likely to name a replacement. Auqib Nabi is the front-runner as he also trained with the team before the one-off Test against Afghanistan and toured Sri Lanka with the India A team last month.
The 29-year-old, who has been a consistent performer for Jammu & Kashmir in the domestic circuit, picked six wickets in the two fixtures in Sri Lanka playing for India A. India’s pace department currently has Mohammed Siraj, Gurnoor Brar and Prasidh Krishna.
Auqib Nabi was unlucky to miss out on selection for the Sri Lanka series after impressing in the last two seasons of the Ranji Trophy. He played a key part in helping Jammu and Kashmir win the Ranji Trophy title in the 2025/26 season, picking up 60 wickets.
Another bowler who travelled to Sri Lanka for the red-ball series with India-A was Vidarbha’s Yash Thakur. The 27-year-old played both First-Class (FC) matches and picked five wickets.
He then made his limited-overs debut for the senior side in the T20I series against Zimbabwe, featuring in two T20Is. Overall, he has picked 93 wickets in 32 games for Vidarbha in FC cricket and could be a good hit-the-deck option in the squad as a back-up to Prasidh Krishna.
The first Test in Sri Lanka begins on August 15 in Galle and the second on August 23 at the SSC in Colombo. Ahead of the series, the team will play a three-day practice match in Colombo, starting on August 7.
The series in Sri Lanka is India’s first in the World Test Championship cycle since the 2-0 home defeat to South Africa in November. Before that, they had drawn a five-Test series in England 2-2 and beaten West Indies 2-0 at home. India are fifth in the WTC standings, while Sri Lanka are sixth.
