Pathan ruled out of Nagpur Test

Irfan Pathan has been ruled out of the third Test against Australia due to a side strain. Ashish Nehra was picked as his replacement and that was the only change when the selection committee picked the side for the Nagpur Test.

It was a big setback for India as they try to come back into the series. Pathan produced some fiery spells in the first Test at Bangalore, where he got the ball to reverse-swing at a high speed. Also, his batting was crucial in all the three innings so far as he spent valuable time in the middle, blunting the Australian bowlers with some immaculate defence.

Parthiv Patel's selection was discussed in the meeting but Sourav Ganguly strongly backed Patel's inclusion. Ganguly felt that Patel had had a bad game and that it was bound to happen to any player.

Sachin Tendulkar was chosen as the 15th member of the squad and will play if his injury heals in time.

Indian squad
Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly (capt), VVS Laxman, Mohammad Kaif, Parthiv Patel (wk), Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik