Australia vs India: Aakash Chopra tweets the replacements for Ravi Ashwin and Rohit Sharma

India announced a squad of 13 players for the second Test of the series against Australia starting at the Perth Stadium on Friday and it did not have two names that played the first match in Adelaide – Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. Both the players are ruled out of the match because of injuries and three names that came into the reckoning are quicks Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and spinner Ravindra Jadeja.

India could be given a green welcome in Perth as the pitch which was unveiled by the local curator had a grassy cover. The plan is to expose the tourists before the home team’s pace attack but Virat Kohli’s team also has a formidable fast bowling attack that could rattle the hosts.

So should India play four pacers in the game, all the more since Ashwin is sitting out for the game? The off-spinner took six scalps in the first match but the team management is ready to play him in Perth since he has an abdominal strain. Virat Kohli did not have a happy experience last time India played an injured Ashwin in England.

Former India Test opener Aakash Chopra has expressed his thoughts on India’s playing XI in Perth. He has suggested the name of Hanuma Vihari for the match in place of Rohit Sharma which looks a certainty. Both Vihari and Rohit were in the 12-member squad that India came up with ahead of the first Test with the former losing out in the final call. Rohit made a comeback to the Test side after almost a year but failed to impress, scoring 37 and 1 in the two innings.

Should India consider playing four pacers in Perth heat?

In the bowling department, though, it looks trickier. According to the former cricketer who was part of the Indian squad that had toured Australia in 2003-04, said the absence of Ashwin will make it tempting to play another quick in the match but cited the hot weather to prefer Jadeja instead. The left-arm spinner got to play just one Test, the last one, in the tour of England and he did well both with bat and ball. One aspect that could go against Jadeja is that the Australian batting line-up has quite a few left-handers.

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