KL Rahul will officially be absent from the fourth Test against England in Ranchi after he did not fully recover from a quadriceps injury and had to miss the matches in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot. Excluded.
The middle-order batsman played in the series opener in Hyderabad, scoring 86 and 22, but missed the second Test after sustaining an injury in that match. A BCCI statement on February 12, ahead of the third Test in Rajkot, said Rahul had achieved 90 per cent match fitness and had made good progress at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
However, the latest update from the board says that whether Rahul will be able to play even in the final Test in Dharamshala will depend on his fitness. Fellow Karnataka batsman Devdutt Padikkal, whose impressive first-class form earned him his first call-up to the Test squad, has maintained his place in the squad.
KL Rahul is yet to recover from injury then why had he been selected for team😡
He is ruled out from 4th Test. Hats off to captain Rohit Sharma who is the captain of very young bunch of players 👏@ImRo45 @BCCI#INDvENG #INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/gb0UR6Oz1p— Munesh Yadav🇮🇳 (@95MuneshYadav) February 21, 2024
Rahul, 31, has been struggling with fitness issues for the past 10 months. He underwent hamstring surgery due to an injury sustained during IPL 2023 and missed key matches. However, Rahul had been in great form in both Test and ODI formats since his comeback in the Asia Cup before this setback.
Meanwhile, ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been given rest by the team management and will miss the lunch Test. This leave was granted to Bumrah in view of his workload and in view of his upcoming schedule which includes his IPL campaign immediately after his T20 World Cup in West Indies and the United States. Bumrah, who took a series-best 17 wickets at 13.64, has already scored 80.5 overs in the first three Tests.
Mukesh Kumar, who was left out of the squad for his third Test, will return to the squad after scoring the highest score of his career for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy match against Bihar. His compatriot Akash Deep does not have a team but is the third player in the team.
India squad for 4th Test: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiwal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (W), KS Bharat (W), Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep.