Ishant Sharma ruled out of first Test against New Zealand after failing to recover from Chikungunya

Ahead of the opening Test at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur, India have been dented a big blow as speedster Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the game against New Zealand starting on Thursday.

The 27-year-old speedster has failed to recover fully from Chikungunya, that has hampered the lives of several people in the national capital of New Delhi and will not be a part of the game, which will also be India’s 500^th Test match.

According to municipal data, over a 1000 people are reportedly been affected by the disease and it is the highest since 2011, when it was 107.

No replacement has been named for him and it now looks likely that in his absence, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami will take the new ball for hosts in the game.

Ishant has been one of the key members of the Indian bowling unit in the past 12-18 months, having taken over the mantle of the leader, following the absence and eventual retirement of Zaheer Khan from international cricket.

In 72 matches, Ishant has taken 209 wickets at an average of 36.71. In 2015, he took 14 wickets in 7 matches, but it was in 2014, that he really grew as a bowler, picking up 38 scalps in 8 matches, that included career-best figures of 7 for 74 against England at Lord’s which helped India win the game by 95 runs.

The last time he played New Zealand in a Test match, he picked up figures of 6 for 51 in Wellington. His overall stats against the Kiwis is also very good. He has taken 30 wickets in 6 matches at an average of 25.63.

It will now be interesting to see how the hosts cope up with Ishant’s loss and more crucially, how the likes of Kumar, Shami and co. respond to his loss.

Another alternative that Kohli can use is to include Umesh Yadav in the line-up, who will offer the skipper more pace, but can he offer the same control as the rest remains a question mark.

What may also work in his favour is that on barren wickets, he has the tendency to succeed with his ability to reverse swing the ball. Will the skipper and coach consider that possibility or will he stick to the likely combination of three spinners and two fast bowlers?

Both Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble will have some thinking to do, with regards to the composition of the team and we will have the answers to all of that on Thursday morning.