The Indian team is currently in Australia participating in the Border-Gavaskar series trying to retain the trophy. With the series leveled at 1-1, the third test ended in a draw on Monday. The final test will be played at Brisbane on Friday. The Indian team pulled off a heroic draw out of nowhere. On the final day, Rishabh Pant, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Hanuma Vihari helped India go through the entire day.
But the process to get through the day wasn’t easy for the team. With the injuries in the playing 11, it was too difficult for the team to pull this off. No one gave the Indian team a chance to get over the line. The Indian team has lost its players in every game of this series. In the first test, India lost the most important player of the squad, Captain Virat Kohli as he took his paternity leave. Mohammed Shami fractured his hand while he was batting and was subsequently ruled out of the entire tour. In the second test, Umesh Yadav complained about a calf niggle while bowling. He was taken for scans soon and the reports suggested that he couldn’t bowl any further and were ruled out for the entire series.
Rohit Sharma too was injured for most of the period of this series. He joined the team after the second test. Before the third test, KL Rahul suffered an injury to his wrist and was ruled out as well. Now before the fourth test, Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari have been ruled out as Jadeja dislocated his left thumb while batting and Vihari suffered a Grade 2 tear to his hamstring.
Ashwin too had a bad back while batting whereas Pant was batting while he was on painkillers. Now the reports suggest that Jasprit Bumrah might not participate in the fourth and final test as he had an abdominal strain. Bumrah and Ashwin will be sent for scans and the final call on their selection will be taken by the management. Mayank Agarwal too hurt himself in the nets and is doubtful for the fourth test. Shardul Thakur and T. Natarajan were earlier added to the squad to cover for Shami and Umesh Yadav. The team selection for the final test will be an interesting one with the unavailability of the crucial players.
Now, Indian veteran batsman, Virendra Sehwag has jokingly offered to play for the team in Australia with a hilarious tweet. He feels with losing all the key players, he would happily go to Australia to play for the team.
In his tweet, he attached a photo showing the list of players ruled out and said that he is ready to go to Australia if so many players are getting injured.
Itne sab players injured hain , 11 na ho rahe hon toh Australia jaane ko taiyaar hoon, quarantine dekh lenge @BCCI pic.twitter.com/WPTONwUbvj
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) January 12, 2021