Umesh will head to NCA for his rehab with Shami.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday (January 1) confirmed that Umesh Yadav has been ruled out of the final two Test matches in Australia, and left-arm pacer T Natarajan will be his replacement in the Indian squad.
Umesh sustained a calf injury on the third day of the Melbourne Test and had to limp off after bowling 3.3 overs in the second innings. He will now head to National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for his rehabilitation along with Mohammad Shami, who was earlier ruled out of the series due to a fracture on his right forearm. Both bowlers would hope to be fit in time for next month's Test series against England at home.
India had also last veteran seamer Ishant Sharma before the series, as well as swing bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar to injuries suffered while playing for their respective franchises in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in UAE.
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Shardul Thakur and Natarajan who were with the squad as net bowlers, have officially replaced Shami and Umesh respectively. Natarajan made his ODI debut and T20I debut earlier on the tour, is now in line for a possible Test debut as well if India opts to have the variation of a left-arm fast bowler in their playing XI. Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah are set to lead the pace attack barring any last minute injury issues.
Team India squad for last 2 Tests: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan.