India suffered a huge blow of sorts as ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma have been ruled out of the second Test match in Perth beginning on Friday.
While Rohit would be out with back injury which he got while fielding on the fifth day in Adelaide, Ashwin has sustained an abdominal side strain on his left side and thus the duo would have to miss out on action in Perth with India, attempting to protect, even add to their series lead.
As replacememts, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav have been included in India’s 13-man squad for the match.
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Hanuma Vihari is the straight replacement for Rohit. Openers Murali Vijay and KL Rahul, despite not coming good in Adelaide expectedly would retain their spots with teenager Prithvi Shaw nursing an ankle injury.
The curator at the WACA in Perth has said that the pitch would be the “bounciest possible” as a result of which, both teams might just play a fourth fast bowler. If India would look for a quick bowler who is also decent with the bat, then Bhuvneshwar Kumar would be the best choice.
If India decide to play four fast bowlers in the line-up, then it would be the only second time this year they would do such a thing. They had done something similar during the Johannesburg Test match against South Africa earlier this year when they had gone into the match with four quickies and Hardik Pandya as an option too.
India, incidentally had won that match.
Skipper Virat Kohli thus would have fond memories of playing on a pitch similar to this one as he says that they are more ‘excited’ than ‘nervous’ to play on such pace-friendly tracks.
“We are excited more than nervous looking at such pitches,” he said, as quoted by ESPN.
India nonetheless would have to chalk out another winning combination.
Squad: Virat Kohli, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav