England spinner Rehan Ahmed to return home for personal reasons

Rehan Ahmed. Pic/AFP

Young England leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed will not take any further part in the five-Test series against India as he is returning home to address some urgent family matters.

The 19-year-old picked up 11 wickets at an average of 44 in the first three Tests of the series, including a six-wicket match haul in the second match in Visakhapatnam. "Rehan Ahmed will return home for personal reasons with immediate effect from England Men's Test tour of India. He will not be returning to India," England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement on Friday.

"England will not be replacing Ahmed for the rest of the tour." England on Friday replaced Ahmed with Shoaib Bashir in their playing XI for the fourth Test. There is just one game remaining in the five-Test series and England have another spinner in their squad in left-arm tweaker Tom Hartley, who is their highest wicket-taker so far in the tour with 16 scalps.

Earlier this month, Ahmed, who is of Pakistani descent, had faced visa issues after arriving from the UAE for the third Test. He had a single-entry visa that expired once he left for a mid-series break to the UAE, and was initially stopped at the Rajkot airport upon arrival before it was resolved due to the intervention of the Indian government and the BCCI. India are leading the five-Test series 2-1. England had won the opening Test by 28 runs but lost the next two matches by 106 runs and 434 runs respectively.

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