India's emerging pacer Mukesh Kumar has not joined the Indian cricket team for the third T20I against Australia in Guwahati as the right-arm speedster is about to get married to Divya Singh. As per the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the 30-year-old had requested the board to grant him leave for his wedding ahead of the game in Guwahati.
"Fast bowler Mukesh Kumar made a request to BCCI to be released from India’s squad ahead of the third T20I against Australia in Guwahati. Mukesh is getting married and has been granted leave for the duration of his wedding festivities. He will join the squad ahead of the 4th T20I in Raipur.
Pacer Deepak Chahar has been added to India’s squad for the remainder of the series," posted BCCI on the social media platform 'X' formerly Twitter.
Mukesh was fairly economical in the first T20I while playing at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. While some of his fellow teammates got a lot of stick, Mukesh only conceded 29 runs in his four overs and never let any of the Aussie batters get under his skin.
He was a tad unlucky to not claim a wicket in the game but impressed everyone with his ability to nail yorkers with sheer consistency and efficacy.
However, the second T20I didn't turn out to be as memorable as the first game for Mukesh as he got taken to the cleaners. He conceded 49 runs in his quota of four overs and looked his pale self.
India's playing XI for 3rd T20I:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna
Australia's playing XI for 3rd T20I:
Travis Head, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Matthew Wade (c & wk), Nathan Ellis, Jason Behrendorff, Tanveer Sangha, Kane Richardson
