Shubman Gill ruled out of warm-up day with finger injury; KL Rahul to lead
India captain Shubman Gill missed the opening day of the three-day warm-up match against the Sri Lanka Cricket XI after sustaining an impact injury to his right ring finger during practice in Colombo on Thursday, the absence confirmed at the toss on Friday morning.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India described the move as precautionary and said the medical staff will continue evaluations. "Captain Shubman Gill sustained an impact injury to his right ring finger during India's practice on Thursday. As a precautionary measure, he will not take the field on Day 1 of the warm-up game against SLC XI. The BCCI Medical Team is monitoring his progress." "KL Rahul will lead the team in Gill's absence."
The injury occurred when Gill was struck on his right hand while facing left-arm pacer Gurnoor Brar in a nets session; he received treatment from the team physio and returned to bat. Later in the same day Gill was hit again during a slip-catching drill after misjudging a sharp chance, briefly leaving the field to apply ice before completing the remainder of the session.
Less than 24 hours earlier India said Gill had endured a difficult training session in Colombo in which he suffered multiple blows to his right hand, prompting the decision to rest him for Day 1. Initial assessments reportedly ruled out serious damage, but the selectors chose to avoid taking risks with the captain with the Test series approaching.
India are already carrying several absences in their squad: Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana are unavailable through injury, and Sai Sudharsan is recovering from a toe problem at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Those fitness concerns were cited by the management when deciding to hold Gill back for the opening day.
The BCCI statement and team management stressed monitoring of Gill over the three-day fixture while KL Rahul led the side on Day 1. The India captain enters the series in strong form, having scored 1,109 runs in his last 10 Tests, including six centuries.
The warm-up game was intended to aid acclimatisation to Sri Lankan conditions ahead of the first Test in Galle on August 15, with India awaiting further medical updates on Gill as the three-day match continues.
