India's net bowler Ishan Porel ruled out of the Australia tour after suffering a hamstring injury

The Indian cricket team has been hit with some massive bad luck in the ongoing three-match One Day series against Australia. It is reported that India’s additional fast bowling option Ishan Porel has returned back to India after sustaining a hamstring injury during a net session. The promising seamer from Bengal will be undergoing rehabilitation at National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

This isn’t good news for the Indian contingent considering that it is now left with only one pure fast bowling option Kartik Tyagi. Originally, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had picked four seamers namely Tyagi, Ishan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, and T Natarajan as the net bowlers for the Australian tour.

However, Nagarkoti hadn’t boarded the flight with the Indian team for Sydney due to his frail body needing workload management while Natarajan was named in the main ODI and T20I squad after it was speculated that Navdeep Saini isn’t completely fit to take the field. Now, only Kartik Tyagi is left for helping out the batsmen during the net sessions.

A BCCI official gives an update on Ishan Porel’s injury

Revealing the news of Porel’s return to India, a BCCI official said on conditions of anonymity as quoted by Times of India, “Ishan Porel has a hamstring injury and is already back in India for the past few days. It’s a hamstring injury but the degree of it can only be assessed once he goes to the NCA for assessment.”

“If it’s a grade 1 tear, there is every chance that Porel will miss the Mushtaq Ali Trophy which is not great news for Bengal. We will now have to wait and see how his rehabilitation goes in Bengaluru. Hope he is not out for too long,” the source added.

Ishan’s cricket career has been majorly dominated by injuries as he had taken a lengthy sabbatical from the game after the U19 World Cup in 2018 but came back well during the last domestic season. Porel was a part of Kings XI Punjab in the just-concluded 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but didn’t feature in a single game.

However, he was selected for the Australia tour after his fine performance in the red-ball cricket in Ranji and Duleep Trophy along with an impressive A tour of New Zealand last season.