Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane Miss Warm-Up Game Due Minor Injuries
Apart from Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami are also not playing.
Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli are not available for the warm-up game in Durham.
Indian captain Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane are not available for the 3-day first-class warm-up fixture against County Select XI along with senior-off-spinner R Ashwin.
Rohit Sharma is captaining the side in the game which began on Tuesday. Ashwin had earlier turned out for Surrey in a county game.
Wicketkeepers Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha are currently isolating after the COVID scares but are expected to join the team soon.
The match also provides an opportunity to Hanuma Vihari to score a few runs and keep Rahane under pressure since he hasn’t been scoring runs very consistently.
The five-Test series will be an acid test for both Cheteshwar Pujara and Rahane.
Interestingly, the ECB made a request to the Indian team management to let two players from the Indian contingent play for County Select XI after some of their players were deemed to be unavailable either due to injury or close contacts of a COVID-19 positive person.
Accordingly, Washington Sundar and Avesh Khan have been made available to play for their team.
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