India omit Harbhajan

Harbhajan Singh

India are set to leave out spinner Harbhajan Singh for the third Test against Australia in Perth.

Harbhajan, who found himself at the centre of a race row over comments he allegedly made to Australia’s Andrew Symonds in the last Test, is set to be replaced by left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan.

The WACA wicket, traditionally one of the quickest in the world, is not expected to offer much help to Harbhajan and India will look to Pathan’s pace instead.

India have also recalled opener Virender Sehwag, who returned to form with a blistering century in the tour match against an ACT XI last week, in place of the out-of-sorts Yuvraj Singh.

Sehwag’s return means Rahul Dravid, who opened the batting in the first two Tests, will move back down to his more accustomed number three position and VVS Laxman to number six.

Captain Anil Kumble said: "Sehwag will come in. It will be a regular batting order, the quality of Rahul at number three again. It would mean shifting the batting order a bit."

Sourav Ganguly, meanwhile, is expected to play despite being laid low with a fever for the last few days.