Bumrah injury opens the door for deserving Nabi’s India call-up

Auqib Nabi, the impressive Jammu and Kashmir seamer, has earned his maiden India call-up after being named as Jasprit Bumrah’s replacement for the upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka in the island. The experienced campaigner was ruled out after failing to recover fully from the left knee injury he sustained during the ODI series against England.

Nabi produced a historic 2025–26 Ranji Trophy season, finishing as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker with 60 wickets in 10 matches at an average of 12.65. He won the Player of the Tournament award and led Jammu and Kashmir to their maiden Ranji Trophy title. Known for his immaculate line and lengths along with the ability to move the ball both ways, the fast bowler delivered match-winning spells, such as 12/110 against Madhya Pradesh in the quarterfinals, and also picked up crucial wickets against Karnataka in the final.

Renowned as the ‘Baramulla Express’, Nabi was among the six net bowlers who helped India prepare for their one-off Test against Afghanistan in New Chandigarh recently.

Updated India squad: Shubman Gill (c), KL Rahul (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sai Sudharsan*, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain, Auqib Nabi