The Indian cricket board said Saturday that pacer Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of the two-Test series against South Africa, which begins this month.
Shami, 33, was already named to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) squad for the away series, but his selection was contingent on fitness clearance.
“Shami, whose participation in the Test series was subject to fitness has not been cleared by the BCCI Medical Team and the fast bowler is ruled out of the two Tests,” the BCCI said in a news release.
He was instrumental in India’s last World Cup campaign, taking 24 wickets in seven games to finish as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker.
India won 10 consecutive games in the event before falling to Australia in the final.
The BCCI also announced that Deepak Chahar, a medium pacer, had withdrawn from the one-day team owing to a family issue.
He was replaced by Akash Deep, who is already in South Africa with India A.
Shreyas Iyer, the batsman, will play in the first ODI but will miss the next two to prepare for the Test series, which begins on December 26.
On Sunday, the first of three One-Day International (ODI) matches begins in Johannesburg.
Captain Rohit Sharma, along with Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravichandran Ashwin, traveled for South Africa on Friday and are expected to play in a practice game in Pretoria on December 20-22.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C), Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Akash Deep are the latest India ODI squad for the South Africa series.
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Agence France-Presse (AFP)