KOLKATA: Washington Sundar was conspicuous by his absence as the Indian side had its first practice session at the Eden Gardens under lights on Monday.
It was later learnt that the Tamil Nadu spinner has been ruled out of the 3-match T20I series against the West Indies after suffering a hamstring injury during fielding in the third ODI against the West Indies on Friday.
He thus became the third player after KL Rahul and Axar Patel to miss out. While Rahul sustained an upper left hamstring strain during fielding in the second ODI (vs West Indies) on February 9, Axar is in the final stage of his rehabilitation after recovering from Covid-19.
Injury returned to stall the 22-year-old Sundar's comeback. The spinner missed out on the T20 World Cup in UAE last year due to a finger injury and was ruled out of the South Africa ODIs as well after testing Covid-19 positive. The offie made a comeback to the Indian team during the ODI series against West Indies. He ended up with four wickets and scored 57 runs in the series.
A Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) official was quoted by Cricbuzz that Sundar had suffered a Grade 1 hamstring injury and will have to report at the NCA on Tuesday. He will apparently need to spend three weeks at the NCA.
The selection committee has named Kuldeep Yadav as his replacement.
