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India’s pace bowling depth is set to be tested in their final two Tests against Australia, with Umesh Yadav to miss the rest of the series.
Yadav tweaked a calf muscle during India’s series-levelling victory in the Boxing Day Test.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Friday the 33-year-old, who is the most experienced member of the tourists’ pace attack, will return home for rehab and miss the remaining two Tests at the SCG and Gabba.
Veteran paceman Ishant Sharma (side strain) and enforcer Mohammed Shami (broken arm), who would ordinarily join spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in India’s full-strength XI, are also unavailable.
Yadav’s setback will increase the burden on Bumrah at the SCG, where the series resumes on Thursday.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
However, right-armer Mohammed Siraj impressed on Test debut at the MCG.
Siraj claimed the key wickets of Travis Head and Cameron Green during Australia’s final innings of the second Test, stepping up after Yadav was restricted to just 21 deliveries.
Would-be debutant Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur headline the list of contenders to replace Yadav.
Thangarasu Natarajan, who made his ODI and Twenty20 debuts for India at the start of their current tour, remained here as a net bowler and he has now been added to the Test squad, with some media outlets suggesting he could be a shock inclusion in Sydney.
Kuldeep Yadav, who counts Shane Warne among his admirers, is another option but it would have to be a remarkably spin-friendly surface for the left-arm tweaker to play alongside Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Meanwhile, the BCCI has posted a clip of Rohit Sharma training and joining the squad in Melbourne after spending a fortnight in hotel quarantine.
“How was quarantine, my friend? You’re looking younger,” coach Ravi Shastri said in the video.
Shastri indicated after the second Test that Sharma’s fitness will determine whether the veteran batsman plays at the SCG.
Sharma, who would likely replace Mayank Agarwal at the top of the order if recalled, missed the first two Tests because of a hamstring injury he suffered during the Indian Premier League.
India captain Virat Kohli has returned home for the birth of his first child and will play no further part in the series.
© AAP
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