Tamil Nadu batsman Dinesh Karthik replaces injured Wriddhiman Saha for the one-off test against Afghanistan starting 14th June in M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. Saha picked the injury in the Qualifier 2 of recently concluded IPL, where he broke his thumb on a delivery bowled by Shivam Mavi. He eventually missed the finals against CSK, where his side faced a humiliating 8 wickets defeat courtesy of a brilliant ton by Shane Watson.
“Mr Wriddhiman Saha has been ruled out of the one-off Paytm Test against Afghanistan to be held in Bengaluru from the 14th of June, 2018,” BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said in a statement.
“He was under observation by the medical staff of the BCCI and the management has decided to give him adequate rest before the start of the England Test series. Saha’s recovery period is expected to be around five to six weeks.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Mr Dinesh Karthik as the replacement for injured Saha,” the BCCI statement further read.
Speaking about his injury a couple of days back Saha said “(Operation is) not yet confirmed. Doctor will assess again and then he will take a call. There will be an x-ray in the next few days and then it will be decided”, he had said.
Karthik has been in stellar form in the Nidahas trophy and followed it by leading KKR to a third place finish in recently concluded IPL and scored a mammoth 498 runs in 16 matches.
He had last appeared in white clothes way back in 2010 against Bangladesh in Chittagong. He has played 23 Tests for India, scoring 1000 runs with a hundred and seven half-centuries.
According to sources close to the selection committee, MSK Prasad and Co are looking at the England tour, where Karthik could make the cut in the longest format also.
