IND vs SL: Sai Sudharsan to miss India's 3-day warm-up tie against Sri Lanka XI; to join teammates in Colombo by weekend

Sai Sudharsan, who missed India's scheduled flight to Colombo from Mumbai on Tuesday, is set to travel to the Island nation by Saturday (August 8). One of the mainstays at no.3 for India since the retirement of Virat Kohli, Sudharsan is currently undergoing rehabilitation for a toe injury.

The left-hander scored an 81 against Afghanistan in the one-off Test at home in June and was a part of India A squad in the two unofficial Tests against Sri Lanka A later that month in Galle. The Tamil Nadu batter was in prime form, scoring hundreds in both the games.

However, Sudharsan was retired hurt in the fifth over of India A's second innings in the second game. According to a Cricbuzz report, Sudharsan is undergoing a rehab for a minor niggle on his big toe and even told his close friends that he would fly out “later this week”. That said, Sudharsan will miss India's three-day warm-up tie against Sri Lanka XI which starts on August 7.

The report added that Sudharsan is on course of regaining full fitness and is expected to play in the first Test, starting on India's Independence Day (August 15). However, it is still not clear if Sudharsan injured his toe during India A's two-match unofficial Test series against Sri Lanka A.

He is currently at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru and has resumed his batting and expected to get the green light from the medical staff to join the India squad in the island nation. So far, Sudharsan has played seven Tests, an scored 383 runs with three half-centuries.

India travel with net bowlers in Sri Lanka

Meanwhile, India have included Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Tanush Kotian and Vipraj Nigam among their net bowlers ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. The decision to add four spinners as a part of the contingent is to prepare the Indian batters against the tweakers in spin-friendly Sri Lankan conditions. Indian batters have struggled against spin lately.

"Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Tanush Kotian and Vipraj Nigam have joined the Indian squad as net bowlers to assist the team in the build-up to the first Test against Sri Lanka," said BCCI's statement.

India are already without ace seamer Jasprit Bumrah, who was ruled out of the series as he has not fully recovered from the left knee injury he sustained during the ODI series against England. The Men's Selection Committee has included Aquib Nabi in the squad as Bumrah's replacement.

India's squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka

Shubman Gill (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sai Sudharsan*, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain and Auqib Nabi.