India vs England: Axar Patel to miss the ODIs and T20Is due to a thumb injury

It was earlier revealed that India might go into the ODI and T20I series against England without their leading spinners R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav as the off-spin duo, who had a successful Test series against England were recovering from their respective injuries while Jadeja is set to be rested ahead of the Test series against Bangladesh and Australia.

Ashwin is suffering from Sports Hernia that ruled him out of Tamil Nadu’s Ranji Trophy quarter-finals and semi-finals while Jayant is nursing a hamstring injury that kept him out of the fifth Test against England in Chennai. With India already suffering from numerous injury concerns, it has been revealed that India’s leading bowler in the ICC ODI rankings, Axar Patel has been ruled out of the ODI and T20I series due to a thumb injury.

Axar, who was called in by the Indian team management for the fifth Test against England as a cover for Jayant Yadav, came in as a substitute fielder on day 2 of the Test when he injured himself trying to catch the ball to dismiss debutant Liam Dawson off R Ashwin at the midwicket boundary.

It has been learnt that Axar, the ninth-ranked ODI bowler, is suffering from a ligament tear on his left thumb and didn’t take part in Gujarat’s ongoing Ranji Trophy quarter-finals against Odisha at Jaipur. Instead, Axar visited the Mumbai-based orthopaedic surgeon, Sudhir Warrier for further consultation and it looks like the doctor has advised him to undergo a surgery.

With this, India are left with Amit Mishra as the only frontline spinner to take on the Poms. Reports also suggest that the selectors might pick Uttar Pradesh’s left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav in the Indian squad for the ODI series. Kuldeep had a good Ranji season as he ended up taking 35 wickets at an average of 27 and scored 466 runs at an average of 36 in the 8 matches he played.

Apart from Kuldeep, the selectors might also pick Yuzvendra Chahal as the third spinner in the side if they decide to rest Jadeja. The selectors will meet in Bengaluru to pick the squad for the series on January 5 or 6.

Apart from the spinners, India will be without Mohammad Shami (knee), Rohit Sharma (thigh) and Hardik Pandya (shoulder) while Ajinkya Rahane, who is yet to recover from a finger injury is racing against time to get fit in time for the limited-overs series.

England are scheduled to play 2 practice matches and it is expected that the visitors will be facing a team that has the likes of India’s ODI skipper MS Dhoni, who is short of match practice, Shikhar Dhawan, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey etc. There were also speculations that 37-year-old pacer Ashish Nehra, who injured himself during last year’s IPL is in line to earn a place in the Indian side.