India vs England: Suryakumar, Shaw to travel to UK as replacements, confirms BCCI

Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav will fly to the U.K to join the Indian team as replacements after Washington Sundar and Avesh Khan were ruled out of the England tour, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed on Monday.

Earlier, Shubman Gill had suffered a developing stress reaction on his left lower leg (shin) during the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June. After it was confirmed through a MRI scan, the opening batsman returned home.

Sundar and Avesh sustained their respective injuries during India's three-day pratice match against County Select XI earlier this month. Both the players represented the County side in the match. While Sundar has suffered a finger injury, Avesh had suffered a blow to his right thumb.

After a discussion with head coach Ravi Shastri, the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee zeroed on Suryakumar and Shaw's name. It is also understood that while Team India had also requested for a third player, there is no update on that as yet.

Suryakumar and Shaw are currently with the Indian team, led by Shikhar Dhawan, in Sri Lanka playing the limited-overs series. Suryakumar recently was named the Player of the Series for scoring 124 runs in three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) at an average of 62 and terrific strike-rate of 122.77. India defeated Sri Lanka 2-1 and are already 1-0 up in the ongoing three-game Twenty20 International (T20I) series.

In the first T20I, which was Shaw's debut for India in the shortest format, he suffered a first-ball duck, while Suryakumar went on to register yet another half-century for the Men in Blue. India defeated the hosts by 38 runs in the first T20I on Sunday.

India vs Sri Lanka: Prithvi Shaw joins KL Rahul, MS Dhoni in unwanted T20I list

"All-rounder Washington Sundar had taken an injection on his right-hand bowling finger. However, his recovery will take longer than expected and he is not bowling-fit. He is ruled out of the remainder of the tour. Fast bowler Avesh Khan suffered a blow to his left thumb on Day 1 of the warm-up game. He was taken for an X-Ray and the result confirmed a fracture. A specialist was consulted for further management of his injury. He is ruled out of India's Tour of England," BCCI said in an official press release.

India and England are set to lock horns in a five-match Test series, starting Aug. 4 in Nottingham. It is their first assignment of the underway 2021-23 WTC Cycle.

The release has also revealed that Rishabh Pant, who had contracted the COVID-19 virus earlier this month, has fully recovered with two negative RT-PCR tests and has begun his preparations for the England Tests after being given the much-awaited clearance from the BCCI Medical Team.

Bowling coach Bharat Arun, Wriddhiman Saha and Abhimanyu Easwaran have completed their self-isolation in London and have now joined the Indian team in Durham.