Arshdeep Singh retires hurt in Hyderabad and leaves India waiting on a fitness call

India are waiting on a fitness assessment for Arshdeep Singh after the left-arm seamer was struck on the arm in the closing over of the fourth T20I in Hyderabad

Arshdeep was batting at No. 11 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday when a short ball from Shamar Joseph hit him on the left upper arm. He had made 5 from 4 balls, and India, needing 35 from the final over with one wicket standing, were already beyond saving the match.

He went down on his haunches and was checked by umpire Nitin Menon and the India physio. He tried to carry on before captain Shreyas Iyer signalled from the dugout for him to come off, and the innings closed there on 223 in 19.3 overs, 24 runs short of West Indies' 247 for 3.

The defeat levelled the five-match series at 2-2 and sent it to a decider at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday, a match India must prepare for without knowing whether their first-choice new-ball bowler is fit to play it.

Struck in the closing over

Joseph had been bowling short to Arshdeep through the over, and the blow landed as the batter turned away from an attempted pull. Scorecards first recorded him as retired out before the entry was corrected to retired hurt.

Accounts of where the ball hit him have differed, some describing the bicep and others the shoulder. India have issued nothing that settles the question.

No official word on the extent

Sanju Samson, who had earlier made 56 from 23 balls, gave the only team-side account afterwards. "Arshdeep is putting ice on his shoulders. Hopefully he gets well soon," he told the post-match press conference, adding that his team-mate "got struck by a high-speed ball".

No scan result has been announced, no medical bulletin has been issued and no replacement has been named, which leaves his availability for Saturday open until India's medical staff report.

Questions over the short-ball barrage

The sequence drew criticism from the commentary box as it unfolded. "He is aiming at him," Sunil Gavaskar said on air, asking why a bowler would attack the batter "when the stumps are right there".

Shreevats Goswami wrote on X that "what Shamar Joseph did in the last three balls against Arshdeep is not in the spirit of the game for me", arguing that the bowler "could have just bowled it on the stumps" with the match already decided.

Neither Joseph nor the West Indies management has responded to the criticism.

Iyer points to the bowling

Iyer, who had put West Indies in, traced the defeat to India's work with the ball rather than to anything that happened in the chase. "It started with the bowling," he said. "I think we did not execute our line lengths well, and at the end of the day, chasing 250, you have to go in a certain pattern when you are coming and chasing."

Arshdeep and Mayank Yadav each conceded 52 runs in their four overs as Shai Hope made an unbeaten 102 from 50 balls, and Keemo Paul then took 5-41 to close the chase down.

"So I like the approach when we were chasing, but we were unfortunate we could not execute our plans in bowling," Iyer said, before adding that he expected the fifth match to be an interesting one.

A tour waiting behind the decider

The timing carries past Saturday. Arshdeep was named in the 16-man T20I squad India announced on 6 October for the New Zealand tour, which opens at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on 22 October, five days after Bengaluru.

Should he be stood down, Prince Yadav, whose 1-36 was the only Indian analysis in Hyderabad to cost less than ten an over, and Mayank Yadav are the seam options already with the squad.

Arshdeep's fitness is the first call India have to make before a decider they reach level for the first time in the series.

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