Wriddhiman Saha has been ruled out of the upcoming one-off Test against Afghanistan due to an injury, the BCCI announced on Saturday.
Dinesh Karthik, who last played a Test in January 2010 (against Bangladesh), has been named Saha’s replacement.
Saha suffered an injury to his right thumb while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL Qualifier 2 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Saha is under the observation of BCCI’s medical staff and has been given rest ahead of the away England Test series, which begins in August. Team India clash against hosts England in a 5 match Test series, after completing the ODI and T20I leg.
Parthiv Patel was the other option for the selectors, but given Karthik’s form in the recently concluded IPL, it would have been hard to keep him out.
Karthik has a prolific First-Class record with 27 hundreds and over 9,000 runs. For KKR in IPL 2018, Karthik accumulated 498 runs from 16 games at 49.80.
The Test against Afghanistan begins at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 14.
