New Zealand vs India 2020: Ishant Sharma Ruled Out Of Second Test

The Indian National Cricket Team gets another massive blow with Ishant Sharma being ruled out for the second Test against New Zealand. The recurrence of Ankle injury ruled Ishant Sharma out of the second Test, which is to be played from Saturday at Christchurch.

Ishant Sharma was among the few positives that India could draw from their 10-wicket loss in Wellington in the first Test. He finished with his 11th five-wicket haul in the first innings and stands just three wickets away from becoming the sixth Indian bowler to amass 300 Test wickets, and the third pacer overall.

Umesh Yadav will replace Ishant Sharma:

But, unfortunately, his injury returned to see him stay away from the final game of the series. As per the lines on Cricbuzz, it is learnt that Ishant Sharma will be replaced by Umesh Yadav, who had a long chat session with Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun during the practice session.

Ishant had incidentally returned to action after a month-long injury lay-off owing to the ankle injury he had suffered in January. He was also by far the best of the Indian bowlers in Wellington, finishing with figures of 5 for 68 in New Zealand’s first innings.

His absence will be a huge blow for the Indian team, who are looking to level the series after suffering a heavy defeat at the Basin Reserve.

Mostly, it will be Umesh Yadav, who will be playing the game ahead of Navdeep Saini, who received his maiden call-up in overseas Test tour. If played, it will be Umesh Yadav’s first-ever game in New Zealand conditions in his cricketing career so far.

All in all, it would be interesting to see how Umesh Yadav pulls it up for India. Since the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav hardly got chances to play in overseas Test matches but he proved his mettle in home Tests.

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