Knee injury set to rule Nitish Kumar Reddy out of England tour

India allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy is set to be ruled out of the remainder of the tour of England after suffering a knee injury. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Reddy picked up the injury on Sunday while training in the gym, with scans revealing ligament damage.

The development is another blow to India's preparations for the fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in Manchester, which starts on July 23, with fast bowlers Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh also nursing injuries that could keep them out of the match. Anshul Kamboj has been added to India's squad as a seam-bowling replacement.

All this comes in addition to workload-management concerns limiting Jasprit Bumrah to just three out of the five Tests of the series. Bumrah played the first and third Tests, and India have indicated that they are "leaning towards" including him at Old Trafford, with the players getting an eight-day break between the third and fourth Tests.

After sitting out the series-opener in Leeds, Reddy played in the second and third Tests. He did not make much of an impact in Birmingham, with match tallies of just two runs and six wicketless overs. He took crucial top-order wickets at Lord's, however, sending back England openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley in the same over in the first innings, and dismissing Crawley again in the second, while scoring 30 and 13 with the bat.

Reddy would have fancied his chances of playing the fourth Test, though he may have potentially contested a spot with Dhruv Jurel, who could be in contention to play as wicketkeeper at Old Trafford in case Rishabh Pant, who is recovering from a finger injury, has to play as a specialist batter.

India have played a seam-bowling allrounder in all three Tests so far, with Shardul Thakur playing the first Test before Reddy replaced him in Birmingham. Thakur could return at Old Trafford if India want to keep the same combination and Reddy is unavailable.

England lead the series 2-1 going into the fourth Test.