Sri Lanka’s fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep will miss the upcoming tour to India due to ankle injury. Pradeep was expected to be named in Sri Lanka’s 16-man squad for the three-match T20I against India. It is known that Pradeep suffered an ankle injury when he was practicing on Saturday.
It is reported that Pradeep will be out of action for the next six weeks and will undergo rehabilitation. Consequently, it is a big blow for the Sri Lankan team as Nuwan Pradeep has the experience under his belt.
This will be a big blow for Sri Lanka.
“During practice sessions on Saturday, he suffered an ankle injury and will be out of action for about six weeks”, a source said as quoted by BD crictime.
“He will be under the care of the physios at our High-performance Unit, the source added.
Our head coach (Mickey Arthur) and captain (Lasith Malinga) will discuss his replacement with the selectors and a new player will be named, the source further added.
“Indian visas for about 20-players are ready and therefore it will not be difficult to name the replacement”.
Meanwhile, it is also reported that Kasun Rajitha can replace Nuwan Pradeep in the squad. However, Rajitha will need to prove his fitness as he had suffered a leg injury on the Pakistan tour.
On the other hand, Suranga Lakmal can also be considered as a possible replacement for Nuwan Pradeep. Lakmal had last played a T20I match in March this year.
“Though he is a Test class bowler, he still can be considered for the T-20 side because of his experience,” the source added.
Sri Lanka is yet to name their squad for the three-match series. The first T20I will take place at Guwahati on 5th January.
India squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Manish Pandey, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson.