India were hit a fresh injury blow as reports emerged of Arshdeep Singh getting hurt while training at the Kent County Cricket Ground in Beckenham. The pacer was bowling alongside Prasidh Krishna when the incident occurred. He injured his bowling hand in an attempt to a stop a ball that came in his way from Sai Sudharsan's bat.
Arshdeep is yet to play a match in this tour and the injury may force him to remain on bench if he fails to recover in time.
The left-arm pacer was seen walking around with bandage on his left-hand. When he was asked by batting coach Sitanshu Kotak for some hits in the nets, captain Shubman Gill was heard saying that Arshdeep might not be able to bat due to the hand injury.
Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate also provided an update on Arshdeep's injury. "Yeah, he took a ball while he was bowling there, Sai had a ball and he tried to stop it and it's just a cut, so we have to see how bad the cut is. Obviously the medical team has taken him off to see a doctor and obviously if he needs stitches or doesn't need stitches that's going to be important to our planning for the next few days," he said.
As Arshdeep failed to continue rolling his arms it prompted bowling coach Morne Morkel to do some hardwork in the nets. Although he failed to touch the speed of Jofra Archer, the former Proteas quick did do a fair job in giving batters a good practice.
"It's not a sort of direct practice machine for Jofra (laughs), but obviously Arsh going away there after he cut his hand and Akash not bowling today (Thursday). Sometimes we run a bit thin and if we think the practice is good, someone rolling off 20 yards and a bit taller and shaping the new ball, it is good practice for the batters. They obviously like competing against Morne as well. But it's mainly about getting the batters the best practice for the Test match," said Doeschate.
Meanwhile, keeping up with the light hearted mood of the session, Morkel went back to the dressing room claiming a five-wicket haul against his batters.
- with PTI inputs
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