Shubman Gill, Shardul Thakur sent home ahead of third ODI against Australia; Axar Patel ruled out: Report

Following a commanding victory over Australia by 99 runs in a rain-affected encounter on Sunday in Indore, the KL Rahul-led Indian team is poised for an outstanding thumping of the three-match ODI series before playing the ODI World Cup at home.

Only a few days after winning their record-tying ninth Asia Cup title, they had earlier won the first game of the series in Mohali on Friday.

Nevertheless, Shubman Gill and Shardul Thakur, two of India's best players, will not be available for the final match on September 27 in Rajkot and will instead be added to the team for the World Cup campaign.

The third and final game of the series will not feature Gill, who recorded a record sixth ODI century at the Holkar Stadium in the second match against the Australians, and Thakur, according to a report on Indian Express on Monday.

The team management has given them a break, thus they won't be travelling to Rajkot with the team. The pair will then play their first World Cup warm-up match against the Indian squad in Guwahati.

Prior to the World Cup, the Indian team management has been organising the management of a few players' workloads. Prior to this, during the first two matches against Australia, four players—Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Virat Kohli—were rested. "Luckily we got a fair amount of cricket at the Asia Cup," BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar had explained the decision.

If not, we would have taken a different tack with it. Guys occasionally require a mental rest in addition to a physical one, which is beneficial coming up to a competition like the World Cup."

The third and final game versus Australia at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium will include all four players. According to a BCCI statement issued on Sunday, Jasprit Bumrah, the great bowler, was granted a break from the second ODI to visit his family. He will also be joining the Indian team in Rajkot. He had been replaced in the squad by Mukesh Kumar.

All-rounder Axar Patel is currently receiving rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru after failing to recover from a left quadriceps strain he sustained during the Asia Cup tournament, according to a recent report in Cricbuzz. Patel will not be playing in the third match.

Axar's absence gives Ashwin more opportunity to play for India in the ODI series against Australia, where he has shown promise by taking three wickets in Indore and one in the Mohali match. However, the report also stated that the selectors are optimistic about Axar's ability to recover in time for the World Cup warm-up matches.

The management may have a difficult time deciding whether to bench Ashwin for the World Cup in light of Axar's potential injury issues.