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by IANS |
Brisbane, Jan 12 (IANS) India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has suffered from abdominal strain ahead of the fourth and final Test against Australia that begins at The Gabba from Friday.
Bumrah was seen holding his stomach during the third Test which ended in a draw at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Monday and had undergone for scans.
While speculation is rife that he won't play the final Test, a BCCI official told IANS that there has been no confirmation on his availability. "There is no confirmation on it yet," said the official when asked about Bumrah's availability.
The team landed in Brisbane on Tuesday afternoon and will assess his injury over the next couple of days.
The right-arm pacer has three days to recover and the Indian team will do its best to ensure his availability for the final Test as his absence following the pullout of Umesh Yadav (injured in second Test), Mohammed Shami (injured in first Test) and Ishant Sharma (who didn't travel at all to Australia), will mean that the visitors will be forced to field a very inexperienced pace attack at The Gabba.
Mohammed Siraj (two Tests), Navdeep Saini (one Test) have both made debut in the ongoing series while Shardul Thakur on the bench has played just one Test in his career. Left-arm fast bowler T Natarajan is yet to play a Test. Kartik Tyagi is also there but as a net bowler. He is yet to play any form of international cricket and has played just two first-class matches.
Bumrah has been the most overworked pace bowler in both camps, having bowled 117.4 overs in the Test series. Overall, on the Australia tour, he has bowled 169.1 overs (including 22 in the warm-up fixture and 29.3 in ODIs). This follows 60 overs he bowled in the Indian Premier League (IPL) before coming to Australia.
The right-arm pace bowler had suffered a lower back injury late last year. He did not play an international after August, 2019 and made his international return only in January 2020.
The series is currently tied at 1-1 with Australia winning the first Test in Adelaide while India registering win in the second match in Melbourne.
