Samson copped a blow to his knee while fielding during the first T20I and was subsequently taken for scans. He was advised rest and rehabilitation by a specialist and has hence been ruled out of the next two matches of the T20I series.

Samson was fielding near the ropes when he tried to dive and stop a boundary but had his left knee stuck in the soil. 

The wicketkeeper batter reportedly did not travel with the squad to Pune and remained in Mumbai for the scans.

BCCI have named uncapped wicketkeeper batter Jitesh Sharma as his replacement.

Jitesh had a spectacular debut IPL season for Punjab Kings in 2022, smashing 234 runs in a lower middle-order role at a strike rate of 163.64. The 29-year-old hard-hitting batter has played 76 T20s overall and has a career strike rate close to 150.

India updated squad: Hardik Pandya (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar. 

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