Washington Sundar Ruled Out Of England T20Is

The injury curse has struck once again for India as the Men in Blue have lost another key member ahead of the T20I series against England. Highly-rated allrounder Washington Sundar has also been ruled out of the forthcoming series.

The 18-year old is sidelined owing to a right ankle injury. Sundar sustained the injury while playing football during India’s first practice session in Malahide on Tuesday. He had hobbled off the field within India’s first hour of training prior to the first T20I against Ireland.

Prior to Sundar, premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah was also ruled out. Bumrah was sidelined after fracturing his finger. The right-arm pacer suffered the injury during the second T20 game against Ireland. The Gujarat star will be returning home, hoping to be fit for the five-match Test series that starts in Birmingham on August 1.

The BCCI is yet to name replacements for the duo. As per reports,  Shardul Thakur and Deepak Thakur’s names are likely to be doing the rounds.

Both Thakur and Chahar are currently in England, playing for India A in the ongoing ODI tri-series and have made big impression. While Chahar has picked up seven wickets in three games including a five-wicket haul, Thakur has picked up six wickets in as many games.

Meanwhile, missing Sundar and Bumrah for the series will be a huge blow for India.  Bumrah has been India’s go-to bowler in limited-overs cricket for quite some time now. On the other hand, Sundar proved his credentials in the Nidahas Trophy with a stunning performance.

In the Nidahas Trophy featuring hosts Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, he was the highest wicket-taker. Sundar took eight wickets in five games and ended the competition at an amazing economy-rate of under six.

Containing England in absence of Bumrah and Sundar will be a big task for the Men in Blue. The current world number one ODI side blew away Australia in the ODIs and T20Is.

England batsmen absolutely massacred the Australian bowlers in the series.  In five games, they scored 300-plus total on three occasions. The two times they missed out was because they were chasing 200-plus totals.

In the third ODI, they had scored a staggering 481 for six – the highest-ever total in the ODI history.  They had also dominated the one-off T20, scoring 221 before restricting Australia to 193.

The T20I series will get underway on July 3.