India call on four sub fielders as key players sent for scans

India stars Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja have both been sent for scans as the tourists scrambled to get 11 fit players on the park on day three of the third Vodafone Test against Australia.

At one point during the afternoon session, India had four substitute fielders on the ground as Pant, Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin were all off the field.

While Bumrah and Ashwin returned, Pant and Jadeja have been sent for further assessment after being struck while batting earlier in the day.

Pant was hit on the elbow by a Pat Cummins thunderbolt and looked apprehensive during the rest of his innings before he edged one to first slip to be dismissed for 36.

Jadeja was then struck on the left thumb by a Mitchell Starc bouncer and while he too continued his innings, he did not take the field for Australia's second innings.

Both players were later sent for scans and with Pant absent, substitute fielder Wriddhiman Saha took the wicketkeeping gloves in the final session.

Between 1980 and 2017, substitute fielders were not permitted to keep wickets in the case of an injury, but the rule was changed and came into effect a little over three years ago.

Like all substitute fielders, Saha cannot bat in Pant's place and it's yet to be seen if Pant or Jadeja will be fit enough to bat in the second innings.

Only substitutes for a concussed player, a rule that was introduced in 2019, are able to bat, bowl or act as captain in place of the replaced player.

"It was felt that, if the original wicketkeeper was genuinely injured, then a substitute should be allowed to take over, but that the umpires should control the situation to prevent abuse," the Marylebone Cricket Club, the game’s law-makers, said at the time of the rule change.

"A substitute still cannot bowl, bat or act as captain."

Coincidentally, India were the first Test team to benefit from the new rule in 2018 when Dinesh Karthik donned the gloves in place of an injured Parthiv Patel during a Test against South Africa in Johannesburg.

More recently, West Indian Joshua Da Silva took the gloves from Shane Dowrich in a Test against England after Dowrich was injured.

India have been plagued by injury during this tour and have already seen Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav fly home due to injury while skipper Virat Kohli is also unavailable due to paternity leave.

Veteran quick Ishant Sharma has also missed the tour due to injury, while vice-captain Rohit Sharma missed the opening two Tests due to a hamstring problem.

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Thangarasu Natarajan

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: India won by eight wickets

Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT