Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma welcomes new-born son but set to miss Perth Test

Indian captain Rohit Sharma will reportedly miss the first Test against Australia as the visitor’s top order continues to remain a mystery.

Reports out of India say that Sharma, 37, will remain in Mumbai after he and his wife welcomed their second child on Friday night.

The destructive top-order batter is likely to be available for the second Test in Adelaide which starts on December 6.

Sharma’s absence is a big blow for the touring side, who are also set to be without young star Shubman Gill after he reportedly broke his thumb at a training session in Perth on Saturday.

Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will almost certainly captain the Indian side in Sharma’s absence.

Meanwhile, veteran KL Rahul is also in doubt after he took a blow to the elbow, but he was seen training on Sunday just days out from the series opener.

Rahul will likely open the batting alongside exciting youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal, while wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant could be moved up the order after a solid series in the loss to New Zealand last month.

It could open the door for Abhimanyu Easwaran to make his Test debut, with the 29-year-old one of only nine specialty batters named in the squad.

The 29-year-old averages nearly 48.87 from 101 first-class games, including 27 centuries, but he struggled in two games for India A, scoring 36 runs from four innings.

India have also reportedly asked A batter Devdutt Padikkal to stay with the Test party.

Sharma is yet to dominate Australia in Test cricket, scoring only one century from 12 Tests, while he averages only 31.38 Down Under from just 14 innings with three half-centuries.

Gill averages more than 50 in Australia after making his debut at the MCG in the 2020 Boxing Day Test, scoring two half-centuries in six innings.

Their absence puts significant pressure on superstar Virat Kohli, who scored a Test century in his only match at Perth Stadium.

Kohli has scored an incredible six Test centuries in 13 matches in Australia with the last of them an incredible 123 in the first innings of a 146-run loss back in December 2018.

The former skipper’s decline has been publicly debated, with Kohli scoring only two Test centuries in the past five years and has passed 50 only twice in his last 12 innings.

In the shock three-Test series loss to New Zealand, Kohli averaged only 15.50 with one half century and five scores 17 or lower.