Double blow for Team India as Ashwin, Rohit ruled out of Perth Test
Perth, Dec 13: India's premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and batsman Rohit Sharma have been ruled out of the second Test starting here on Friday, dealing a double blow to the visitors at a time when opener Prithvi Shaw is yet to recover from an ankle injury.
With the trio unavailable for selection, India included Hanuma Vihari, Ravindra Jadeja, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in a 13-man squad announced on eve of the second Test.
While Shaw injured his ankle while fielding in the sole warm up game before the series opener, Ashwin suffered an abdominal strain and Rohit hurt his back during the first Test which India won by 31 runs.
"Prithvi Shaw is recovering well from his left ankle injury but still undergoing treatment. R Ashwin has a left-sided abdominal strain. He is receiving treatment at the moment. Rohit Sharma jarred his lower back while fielding in the 1st Test at Adelaide. He is undergoing treatment. He too is ruled out of the second Test," read a statement from the BCCI.
"The team management is closely monitoring these players and a call on their availability for the third Test will be taken at an appropriate time," it added.
Ashwin's unavailability is a big loss as he had taken a six-wicket haul at Adelaide to help India record their first win in a series opener in Australia.
Rohit, who made a Test comeback at the Adelaide Oval, was expected to retain his place in the eleven after scores of 37 and 1.
India's 13-man squad: Virat Kohli (captain), M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
