India have called up allrounder Washington Sundar as an injury cover for Axar Patel ahead of the final of the Asia Cup 2023 where they will face Sri Lanka on Sunday. According to a report in Cricbuzz, Sundar will join the India ODI squad in Colombo after Axar picked up niggles during the team’s six-run defeat to Bangladesh in a Super 4 clash on Friday.

Sundar, an offspinner who bats left-handed, missed out on India’s 15-man ODI World Cup squad but will be part of their Asian Games 2023 campaign in China. A camp has been organized for India’s Asian Games bound men’s cricket squad in Bengaluru which will run till September 23. Sundar will fly back to rejoin the camp after the Asia Cup final.

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The 23-year-old Sundar last played an ODI in January this year and was part of India’s second-string squad for the Ireland T20I series in August, playing in two matches with the third being washed out due to rain. Overall, Sundar has played in 16 ODIs so far, scored 233 runs and has 16 wickets to his name.

On the other hand, Axar has played two matches of the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 – both in Super 4 stage with the first against Sri Lanka and the second against Bangladesh. Against Sri Lanka, he added a valuable 26 runs with the bat but was ineffective with the ball, bowling five wicketless overs for 29 runs. He fared better with the ball against Bangladesh though, returning figures of 1/47 from 9 overs.

With the bat, he scored a gritty 42 off 34 while batting at no. 8 to keep India’s hopes of chasing down 266 alive, a target they eventually fell short of by seven runs.

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India are already sweating over the fitness of Shreyas Iyer who played in both their group matches before a back spasm ruled him out of the Super 4 clash against Pakistan. Although reports on Friday claimed that he has shown improvement but not good enough to warrant a return to the playing XI.