Rohit Sharma's brigade has suffered a major blow as their star middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of the first Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, Sports Tak has learned. Iyer, who was ruled out from the ODI series against New Zealand after picking up a back injury and headed to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to start the recovery process, has not been declared fit yet.
"Shreyas Iyer is likely to miss the first Test against Australia," a source told Sports Tak on the condition of anonymity.
"Iyer, who is currently in NCA for his rehab, has not been declared fit. We are keeping track of his back issue which is still there and he continues to feel some pain. So, it's not advisable to play in this situation. He needs some more rest. He will undergo another test and then will see how exactly his fitness is and a decision will be taken," the source added.
The four-match Test series between India and Australia kicks off on February 09 with the first game scheduled to be played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
The upcoming Border-Gavaskar series will be extremely crucial for India as they want to make one final push to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Rohit Sharma's men are currently second on the WTC standings while the Baggy Greens are at the summit.
Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 schedule:
1st Test at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur - February 9-13
2nd Test at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi - February 17-21
3rd Test at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala - March 1-5
4th Test at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad - March 9-13
India’s squad for the first two Tests vs Australia: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav
Australia Test squad for India tour: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
