India vs England: KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja to miss second Test

India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and batter KL Rahul have been ruled out of the second Test against England, adding to the hosts’ problems.

Jadeja suffered a hamstring injury and Rahul a quadriceps issue during England’s 28-run win in the first Test.

India are already without star batter Virat Kohli, pace bowler Mohammed Shami and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar and Washington Sundar have been added to the squad for Friday’s second Test.

Uncapped Sarfaraz, 26, is a middle-order batter with a first-class batting average of 69.85, the fourth-highest of all-time.

Spin-bowling all-rounder Sundar, 24, has played four Tests, including three on England’s last tour here, a 3-1 defeat in 2021. He made his debut in India’s famous win against Australia in Brisbane earlier that year.

Kumar is a 30-year-old left-arm spinner, with almost 300 wickets in first-class cricket.

Former captain Kohli withdrew from the first two Tests in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam for personal reasons.

Pant is a long-term absentee following a road accident, while Shami has a heel injury.

India already had much to ponder after letting England overturn a 190-run first-innings deficit to pull off one of their greatest ever overseas wins.

Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav now seems set to play in Visakhapatnam, while uncapped batter Rajat Patidar, who scored two centuries in two matches against England Lions earlier this month, was already in the squad and could come in for Rahul.

If India opt to bolster their batting, especially after pace bowler Mohammad Siraj bowled only 11 overs in Hyderabad, then that would open the door for Sarfaraz to debut.

“They could play just one fast bowler, then maybe add an extra batter,” former India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik told the Test Match Special podcast. “They will look to pack the middle order even more, to give them the confidence to go out there and do what they do.”

India dominated the first part of the first Test, posting 436 after bowling England out for 246 in the first innings.

However, the hosts lost their discipline with the ball and in the field as Ollie Pope made 196 for England in the second innings, expertly executing all manner of sweeps and reverse-sweeps.

India were then strangely subdued in a chase of 231. Whereas opener Yashasvi Jaiswal set the tone in the first innings, blasting 80 from 76 balls and swiping debutant spinner Tom Hartley’s first ball in Test cricket for six, India crawled along in the fourth innings on Sunday afternoon.

“This Test they didn’t have answers to a few of the questions raised by the English batters,” said Karthik, who won 180 caps for India across all three formats.

“The reverse-sweep is something that the bowling unit will ponder as to what they can do when a batter reverses.

“The India team has always come back from adversity well and they will come out all guns blazing with bat and ball. You will see a different India with different plans.”

And 38-year-old Karthik, who was part of the last India team to win a Test series in England in 2007, wants the home batters to be more aggressive in the second Test.

“I hope they are a lot more attacking,” he said. “We saw when Yashasvi took on the spinners, how it looked then, to how different it was in the second innings when they were a bit meek and waiting for things to happen.

“They need to be a bit more positive, play a bit of fearless cricket, like England have done really well.”

On their last tour of India, England won the first Test on a flat pitch in Chennai, only to lose the final three matches on surfaces offering plenty of turn.

In Hyderabad, they won on a pitch suited to the spinners and Karthik believes Visakhapatnam could turn even more.

“It is a coastal town,” he said. “It will be a lot warmer during the day. The pitch will have as much bounce as Hyderabad and I’m pretty sure it will turn as much, if not more.

“I’m expecting a game that will again be dominated by spin.”