India were dealt a double blow ahead of the second match of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Test series against Australia with both Ravichandran Ashwin and Rohit Sharma ruled out due to injuries.
India are already without opener Prithvi Shaw, who picked an injury during their warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has drafted Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar into the squad of 13 announced on the eve of Perth Test, which starts on Friday.
13-Man Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav
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Ashwin, who bowled 86.5 overs in Adelaide, has been ruled out due to a persistent abdominal strain on his left side. Ideally, Jadeja should come as his replacement.
Rohit, who returned to the Test fold after missing series in England and against the West Indies at home, sustained a back injury while attempting to field the ball on Day 5 of the first Test.
Hanuma Vihari can be a like-to-like replacement for the Mumbai batsman. But the nature of Perth pitch may force India to field an extra pacer thus necessitating the sacrifice of a batsman.
And it can be read from the make of the 13-man squad, which has five pacers in Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav.
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Ishant, Shami and Bumrah were brilliant in the series opener, and boosting the pace attack by adding a fourth should not surprise many.
Meanwhile, Australia have named an unchanged team for the match.
India won the Adelaide Test by 31 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
