A bulletin on the website of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday, 21 July, said that Saha, the premier Indian wicket-keeper for Test cricket, will go under the knife in late July or early August.

There had been a little confusion about what exactly Saha had been suffering from.

He had to be left out of the squad for the Test match against Afghanistan in June, and has since missed being a part of the squad for the first three Tests of the upcoming five-match series in England.

Prior to the game against Afghanistan, he featured in the Indian Premier League 2018 for Sunrisers Hyderabad, but missed a set of games between 7 May and 25 May, with reports suggesting that he had picked up a thumb injury.

The BCCI bulletin has since stated that Saha had reported at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru on 29 January – at the end of the Test series in South Africa, where Saha played just the first of three Tests – complaining of a pain in his upper left hamstring.

He had also complained of pain in his right shoulder at the same time. Tests confirmed a labral tear.

After being given ‘an ultrasound guided injection’, Saha went through a rehabilitation process at the NCA, and was discharged on 19 March after recovering from both issues.

Saha has had problems with his right shoulder since January, the BCCI confirmed

But during Hyderabad’s match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on 7 May, “he fell twice on his shoulder jarring the joint”, according to the bulletin. Treatment allowed him to return to the IPL but, the bulletin said, on 25 May, in the game against Kolkata Knight Riders, “Saha injured his right thumb during this game with x-rays confirming that he had sustained a fracture”.

The thumb didn’t require surgery, and had healed by the start of July, but on 3 July, Saha “again reported that he was experiencing pain and restriction of movement in his right shoulder”. Tests found that the labral tear had worsened, necessitating the surgery.

Saha, who played the last of his 32 Tests earlier this year in South Africa, will be out of action for the foreseeable future, and no timeline of his return to action has been confirmed yet. Dinesh Karthik has been selected as India’s primary wicket-keeper for the first three Tests in England, with the uncapped Rishabh Pant named as the back-up option.