Manchester, Jul 19 (PTI) Injured Indian left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who is yet to play in the ongoing Test series against England, is unlikely to be available for selection for the fourth Test beginning in Manchester from July 23.
Arshdeep, who is yet to play Test cricket, injured his left hand while trying to stop a shot from Sai Sudharsan’s on his follow through during the net session in Beckenham on Thursday.
The Indian team on Saturday arrived in Manchester in their bid to level the five match series following the heartbreak of Lord’s.
Following the training session in Beckenham, Arshdeep was walking around with his bowling hand bandaged.
Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, in as many words, had hinted that Arshdeep would be racing against time to get fit for the Manchester Test even though he had not found a playing eleven spot in the first three games.
“We’ll take a call on the combination we play, particularly given the Arshdeep situation as well, we’ll make that call closer to Manchester,” said Doeschate referring to the left-arm pacer getting injured during training.
“He took a ball while he was bowling there, Sai had a ball and he tried to stop it and it’s just a cut, so we have to see how bad the cut is. Obviously the medical team has taken him off to see a doctor and obviously if he needs stitches or doesn’t need stitches that’s going to be important to our planning for the next few days,” he had said post training in Beckenham.
The left-arm pacer was only likely to get a shot if one of two senior pacers — Jasprit Bumrah or Mohammed Siraj happen to be rested due to workload management. Bumrah, Siraj and Akash Deep formed the pace trio at Lord’s.
It remains to be seen if Bumrah decides to play the Manchester Test or the fifth one at The Oval with the series on the line already.
There is no clarity over the availability of Akash Deep, who is dealing with a groin niggle.
Siraj has featured in all the games so far and is due for some rest. PTI KHS KHS
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