England have suffered a major blow in the ongoing Test series against India as their emerging leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed has flown back home due to personal reasons and won’t be coming back for the fifth and final Test of the series to be played at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala.
England Cricket Board has confirmed that the Ben Stokes-led side will not be naming any replacement for Rehan.
As per reports, Rehan is heading back home to deal with an urgent family matter that requires his attention.
His departure have reduced England’s spin-bowling stock to its bare minimum as the tourists now have only two frontline spinners in their arsenal in the form of Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir.
Rehan bagged 11 wickets in three games of the series and is England’s second-leading wicket-taker. He blew hot and cold during the three games that he played and was unable to land the ball consistently in the probing areas.
Rehan’s absence may go on to hurt the English team as they have already lost the services of their premier left-arm orthodox bowler Jack Leach with a knee injury that he sustained during the first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad.
Rehan was the most experienced spinner of England’s attack in Leach’s absence as Hartley and Bashir have just played three and one Test match each. Joe Root‘s role will now become crucial for the tourists with the ball in hand because of his experience.
England’s playing XI for the 4th Test in Ranchi:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson, Shoaib Bashir.
India’s playing XI for the 4th Test in Ranchi:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj