India's depleted pace attack lost much of its sting on Wednesday with spearhead Zaheer Khan being ruled out for the rest of the Australia tour with a heel injury, prompting the Cricket Board to send Punjab pacer VRV Singh as his replacement.
"The report of the MRI scan of the injury (to Zaheer) has shown that he needs six weeks rest to recover. He has been ruled out of the Australian tour and will return home. The selectors have decided that VRV Singh will replace him in Australia," BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said.
The 29-year-old Zaheer has been in terrific form with the ball since his return to the Indian team last year and was impressive in the first Test even though India lost the matchby a massive margin at Melbourne.
It was Zaheer's 53rd Test.
He had missed the December 8-12, 2007 third and final Test against Pakistan at Bangalore in the previous series because of the injury before being declared fit for selection for Australia.
When India last toured Australia in 2003-04, Zaheer played in the opener at Brisbane before being injured and missed the second Test which India won at Adelaide, bowled in the third at Melbourne and then missed the final drawn Test at Sydney because of injury.
VRV Singh, the 23-year-old tall pacer from Punjab, has played in five Tests, the last being in May, 2007 against Bangladesh at Chittagong.
"Zaheer would return to India immediately," Shah said.
India are already without the services of S Sreesanth, nursing a shoulder injury, and Munaf Patel, who has been asked to prove his fitness in domestic cricket by the selectors before being considered for selection.
Munaf, needed by Maharashtra in their last two Ranji Trophy Elite Division league ties, could not be contacted by the team officials and he did not play the ties.
The injury-prone pacer now has the Duleep Trophy tournament starting later this month to get back into action and impress the selectors.
Shah said Munaf has been asked to report to the Bangalore-based National Cricket Academy for training-cum-rehabilitation while the injury status of Sreesanth was yet to be clear.
"Munaf Patel will now go to the NCA to train with others. The BCCI is yet to get the status regarding the injury to Sreesanth," the BCCI secretary said.
Shah also informed that the Indian team for the one-day tri-series as well as the one-off T20 tie in Australia, to follow the Test rubber, will be selected either during the third (Jan 16-20) or fourth (Jan 24-28) Test matches.
