Perth, Australia

Injury concerns and the unavailability of star players have rocked India ahead of the Perth Test against Australia starting November 22. Shubman Gill broke his thumb while fielding in the slips in the WACA simulation game, likely ruling him out of the BGT opener; at the same time, KL Rahul also suffered a blow to his right elbow, putting his participation in the first Test in jeopardy. Besides, no official word on Rohit Sharma’s availability is made public.

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With misery piling on the touring side, which lately suffered a maiden Test series whitewash at home at the hands of New Zealand, are left with no options but to ask either of two India-A players, Devdutt Padikkal and Sai Sudharsan, to stay back as covers for the Perth game should all three abovementioned players remain unavailable for selection.

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Devdutt and Sai were part of two India-A matches against Australia-A, which the visitors lost, and played the simulation game in Perth. With the rest of India-A players, barring the three travelling reserves for BGT - Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar, flying home on November 17, the selectors have reported asking one of the top-order batters to link with the main squad ahead of the Perth match.

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For backup, India already has uncapped Abhimanyu Easwaran in the Test squad for the Australia series.

"The final call will be with the coach, captain and selectors, but there is a strong possibility of management asking one specialist top-order batter to stay back for the series opener. Abhimanyu Easwaran is already there, but one of Sai or Devdutt could well stay back too," a source close to the development said, as quoted by Times of India (TOI).

Tough call to make for selectors

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Padikkal, the left-handed batter, seemed to have impressed chief selector Ajit Agarkar, who has been tracking his game since his Test debut against England early this year. In his lone outing in Dharamsala, Padikkal scored 65 and 88 versus Australia-A in the second innings of the first unofficial Test in Mackay.

On the other hand, Sai has been in some form. The left-handed batter scored a double hundred in the Ranji Trophy for Tamil Nadu in the leadup to India-A matches, where he notched an impressive century in the second innings of the first Test against Australia-A. 

Sai also hammered a ton in the Duleep Trophy and for Surrey in the English County earlier.  

(With inputs from agencies)