Big Injury Concern For India? Star Batter May Miss Duleep Trophy - Report

Indian cricket team T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav may miss the upcoming Duleep Trophy due to injury concerns, according to a report by Times Of India. The report claimed that the star batter has checked into the National Cricket Academy (NCA) after suffering an injury to his right thumb during the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament match against TNCA XI on Thursday. With less than a week to go for the Duleep Trophy, there is a chance that he may end up missing the competition. It is also bad news for the Indian cricket team who will be facing Bangladesh in a two-match Test series in September.

Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav expressed his desire to "earn a spot" in the Indian Test team, saying that red-ball cricket is a priority for him.

India is scheduled to play 10 Tests over the next few months. Although a regular in India's white-ball setup, Suryakumar has played only one Test - against Australia in February 2023, scoring eight runs in his solitary Test inning.

In the same year, he was named as one of the reserves in the ICC World Test Championship Final squad. With Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, KL Rahul and Rajat Patidar also fighting for a spot, Suryakumar acknowledges the uphill task ahead of him.

"There are a lot of people who have worked really hard to earn their place and even I want to earn that spot again," Suryakumar said as quoted by ICC.

"I made my debut for India in Tests. After that, I got injured as well. There were a lot of people who got an opportunity and have done well too. They deserve that opportunity right now," he added.

In 82 first-class matches, he has scored 5,628 runs with a healthy average of 43.62 with 14 hundreds to his name.