India are set to be without batsman Shreyas Iyer for next week's opening Test against Australia in Nagpur.
Iyer has battled a back issue that flared up following his nation's two-Test series against Bangladesh late last year, with the ailment sidelining the 28-year-old for India's white-ball clash with New Zealand.
The Mumbai-born right-handed batsman did feature in a trio of ODIs against Sri Lanka last month, but further assessment of Iyer's injury from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) is set to sideline the Indian hitter for next Thursday's opening Test against Australia.
According toย ESPN,ย Iyer will be unavailable for the first of four Tests against Australia, however, he remains a strong chance to return for the second match in Delhi on February 17.
Iyer found some strong form in the red-ball format across his two matches against Bangladesh in December, recording scores of 86, 87 and 29* at sixth in the batting order.
Captain Rohit Sharma is set to return to the top of the batting order in place of either KL Rahul or Shubman Gill, with one of the opening pair set to be dropped down the order.
The opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be hosted in Nagpur from Thursday, February 9.
India's squad for first Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy:
Rohit Sharma (capt)
KL Rahul (vc)
Shubman Gill
Cheteshwar Pujara
Virat Kohli
KS Bharat (wk)
Ishan Kishan (wk)
R Ashwin
Axar Patel
Kuldeep Yadav
Ravindra Jadeja
Mohammed Shami
Mohammed Siraj
Umesh Yadav
Jaydev Unadkat
Suryakumar Yadav
