Gill injury adds to India's top-order woes

India's top-order batting worries have deepened less than a week from the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series with Shubman Gill suffering a thumb injury on day two of his team's intrasquad match simulation in Perth.

Gill, who opened the batting when India last played Australia in the World Test Championship final at The Oval but has since been installed at number three, suffered a suspected fractured thumb in attempting a catch in the slips cordon.

With media locked out of the second day of India's planned three-day training exercise at the WACA Ground, few details were available as to the circumstance or extent of the injury.

But it is understood the 25-year-old right-hander is in doubt for the opening NRMA Insurance Test that starts at Perth Stadium next Friday with hopes he may recover in time for the second Test, a day-night match at Adelaide Oval starting December 6.

That would create further confusion over the likely line-up India will take into the start of their defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which they've held since 2017, with skipper Rohit Sharma yet to join the touring party.

Few details have been shed on Rohit's likely arrival in Australia, but given his teammates have spent the best part of a week getting used to the unique pace and bounce of pitches in Perth it seems unlikely he would front up should he join the squad before Friday.

However, that thinking may change if Gill is unavailable and the player cited as most likely replacement for Rohit in the opening role – experienced batter K L Rahul – also under a cloud after suffering an arm injury yesterday.

Rahul was struck on the right elbow by a rising delivery from pace bowler Mukesh Kumar early in yesterday's seven-hour centre-wicket session and did not return to the fray for the remainder of the day.

While he was at the WACA Ground for today's match simulation that saw front-line fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, as well as spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja go through their paces, Rahul again took no part in the on-field action.

India have no shortage of auxiliary batters in their 17-man Test squad (18 once Rohit arrives) in addition to a number of candidates in the India A outfit that played two matches against Australia A earlier this month and is involved in the match simulation.

Uncapped specialist opener Abhimanyu Easwaran is in the Test squad and could be enlisted to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order if required, although the 29-year-old failed to reach 20 in his four innings against Australia A at Mackay and the MCG.

Of the auxiliary batters in India's Test squad, reserve wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel has looked to be most comfortable in his Australia hit-outs with scores of 80 and 68 after he and Rahul were added to the India A line-up for the Melbourne game.

However, while Jurel's current form has brought comparisons with Australia's auxiliary gloveman Josh Inglis who was included in the Test squad purely on the strength of his batting, Jurel has not batted above number seven in his three previous Test appearances.

It would be a marked leap of faith to elevate him against Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood on what is expected to be a lively Perth Stadium surface for the series opener next week.

The other candidates could be India A skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad who managed scores of just 0 and 5 as an opener at Mackay, and four and 11 batting further down the order at the MCG.

Left-hander Sai Sudharsan who, like Gaikwad, is also uncapped at Test level was India's sole century maker of the series against Australia A with 103 in the second innings at Mackay.

But his other scores of 21, 0 and 3 suggest it would also require a huge leap of faith to elevate him ahead of incumbent members of the first-choice Test squad should any or all of Gill, Rohit and Rahul be unavailable.

India will complete their match simulation at the WACA Ground tomorrow before finalising their Test preparation on the practice pitches at Perth Stadium next week.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed