Former Indian opening batter and commentator Aakash Chopra has reckoned that there is no proper clarity over Washington Sundar and Jasprit Bumrah’s availability for the forthcoming T20I series against Afghanistan.
Bumrah suffered a left knee impact injury during the ODI series against England in July. This forced him to miss the subsequent two-Test tour of Sri Lanka. On the other hand, Sundar has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, which he sustained during the white-ball tour of England, forcing him out of the Sri Lanka Test series.
“After that, you see Washington Sundar. His name is still with an asterisk, which means there is still no guarantee about his fitness. There is no clarity about it. After that, you see a star after Jasprit Bumrah’s name, which means we really don’t know whether he is available or not,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
Further, Chopra asserted that either Prince Yadav or Gurnoor Brar could make their return to the Indian T20I squad if Bumrah or Harshit Rana are not deemed fit for the three-match T20I series, starting on September 13 in Delhi.
“Then there is Harshit Rana, who is also subject to availability. If these two fast bowlers don’t come, or if one of them doesn’t come, Prince Yadav’s name could come. You might consider him for inclusion. You might see Gurnoor Brar playing again. So those are the kind of changes that can happen,” Chopra added.
India squad: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Tilak Varma (VC), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
NOTE: * Subject to fitness clearance
