(Cricket news) The third test of the India vs England series is all set to kick off from the 15th of February at Rajkot. The Indian batting will be tested heavily, in the absence of the star batters in the form of Kl Rahul and Virat Kohli.

Virat Kohli was ruled out of the series because of personal reasons, whereas Kl Rahul suffered a quadriceps injury ahead of the second test which made him unavailable from that game at Vizag. Rahul was however picked in the India’s squad for the final three tests, with his availability subject to fitness. 3 days before the game he was ruled out of the Rajkot test as well, failing to fully recover.

In the absence of Kl and Virat, the Indian batting is set to feature two debutants in Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, who might take the place of KS Bharat, while Rajat Patidar will play only his second test. Shreyas Iyer was dropped from the side for the remainder of the series. Rohit Sharma will be the most experienced player in this batting line-up having played 56 tests, the second most experienced batter being Subhman Gill with 22 tests.

The return of Ravindra Jadeja will however give India a huge boost as he has been one of India’s major run scorer in the red-ball format for the past few years. India will also have to deal with a matter of plenty in their bowling attack, as someone will have to make way for Jadeja. Kuldeep was pick of the bowlers for India at Vizag, which can potentially lead to Axar Patel being dropped from the eleven for the Rajkot test.

R Ashwin, arguably India’s best red-ball bowler is in the brinks of yet another milestone, as he is just 1 wicket away from 500 Test wickets. He would want to get his 500th scalp as soon as possible and register his name in the history books.’

India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Srikar Bharat(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep

Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj.

ALSO READ : England announces their playing 11 for the 3rd test, Mark Wood returns