Reports: Bhuvneshwar Kumar ruled out of the last two Tests against England

Team India is trailing 0-2 in the Test series and they would be keen to pull one back on the hosts in the third game. The squad for the last two Tests to be played at the Rose Bowl and Oval will be announced after the end of the third Test at Trent Bridge which begins Saturday, August 18. All the eyes are on Bhuvneshwar Kumar who was expected to be fit by now. However, he hasn’t recovered from his back injury and will not feature in the last couple of Test matches as well.

Kumar, who missed a few of the limited-overs matches before the Test series because of a back injury, aggravated it during the final ODI at Headingley and was ruled out of the first three matches. The 28-year-old bowler did extremely well in South Africa earlier this year and the team management expected him to be a key member of the bowling department in this all-important England series.

Undergoing rehab at NCA

According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Kumar has been undergoing a rehab programme at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru but sources from NCA as well as Nottingham where the team is based now indicated that the pacer hasn’t recovered satisfactorily to be considered for selection. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had said after announcing the Indian squad for the first three Tests that Kumar could be available for the final two matches.

India’s headache in this tour, however, has been its batting. They were shot out twice within 83 overs in the second Test at Lord’s to lose the match by an innings and 159 runs. It came after the 31-run loss in the first Test at Edgbaston, thanks again to an insipid batting display by the tourists, with the glorious exception of Kohli who alone scored 200 runs in the game. India have failed to cross 200 runs in three out of four innings they have batted so far.

The bowlers have done their job better. They picked 20 wickets in the first Test and also had the hosts cornered at Lord’s before their lower-order fired. The team’s two main bowlers – Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma – did well at Edgbaston though the spinners did not deliver in the second Test where the conditions suited the seamers more.

“We’ve agreed that we messed up in Lord’s and got outplayed. But the fact was when we batted the conditions were damp and when we bowled, the weather was sunny. It is not an excuse but the fact was the luck was not on our side,” a source said.

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