Chennai, December 14: Bhuvneshwar Kumar will miss the ODI series against the West Indies beginning on Sunday (December 15) with the first match at Chennai. The pacer did not participate in the team practice session at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday (December 13).
India's bowling coach B Arun did not divulge the nature of the injury but said Bhuvneshwar is being assessed by the team physio. "The physios are taking a call. They would give a press release later in the evening after the assessments," Arun told reporters at Chennai. Later a BCCI release pinned it as groin injury picked up during the T20Is against Windies.
The 29-year-old Bhuvneshwar will miss all the three ODIs and the selectors have named Shardul Thakur as his replacement.
Bhuvneshwar returned from a long injury lay-off during the T20Is against West Indies which India won 2-1. He took two wickets in the series decider at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, after going wicketless in Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram.
India had already lost Shikhar Dhawan to knee injury that he sustained during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Surat. Mayank Agarwal was drafted in as his replacement.
If Bhuvneshwar gets indeed ruled out of the series it will be a massive setback for the pacer as he has been struggling with injuries since the last year and half. Since his man of the match winning effort at Johannesburg against South Africa in 2018, Bhuvneshwar had been pinned down by multiple injuries.
He suffered a back injury during the IPL 2018 that led to him getting ruled out of the series England in mid 2018. He returned during the white ball series against Australia in the 2018-19 series and against New Zealand in early 2019.
Bhuvneshwar missed three matches of India's group stage campaign - Afghanistan, West Indies and England - in the ICC World Cup 2019 with a hamstring injury forced him to sit out after that. He missed the away series against Windies with a side strain and that also resulted in him missing the home series against South Africa and Bangladesh.