Injury has hit the India camp ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy decider at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) as pacer Akash Deep has been ruled out of the New Year's Test with a back injury. India's head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed the development on the eve of the fifth Test during a press conference.
"Akash Deep is out with back issue," Gambhir was quoted as saying by PTI in the pre-match press conference.
Akash Deep played two Tests in the series. He claimed figures of 1/95 and 2/28 in the third Test of the series at the Gabba and was highly unfortunate to not get more wickets despite consistently hitting the corridor of uncertainty. He registered figures of 2/94 in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG but went wicketless in the second innings despite creating opportunities that went begging.
Akash Deep bagged five wickets across four innings of the two Tests at an average of 54.00. The right-arm speedster was able to beat the outside half of the bat on countless occasions but luck didn't smile on him.
The injury to Akash Deep has created selection headaches for Team India. The tourists are already 2-1 behind in the series and are fighting to not only defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but to also remain alive in the race to the final of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle.
India are in a must-win situation as it will not only help them retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but will also give them a realistic chance of making it to their third consecutive WTC final appearance.
India's squad:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep (ruled out), Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Tanush Kotian, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana
