Australia cricketer Steve Smith will be serving as the stand-in sipper, if regular Test captain, Pat Cummins remains unavailable for the remainder of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, against India. After Australia’s second consecutive loss to India in the four-match Test series, Pat Cummins flew back to Australia due to family-related health issues.

Albeit, the Australian skipper had hinted that he will be coming back to join the squad ahead of the third Test commenced, there is still no guarantee. As per the recent reports of cricket.com.au, there is a strong possibility that the Australian vice-captain, Steve Smith, will be leading the team for the remainder of the series, in Cummins’ absence.

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Notably, in recent times Aussies have been suffering from a lot many injury concerns, with the biggest blow being that of David Warner being ruled out of the remainder of the series due to an elbow fracture.

However, amidst all the worries, a blink of hope still remains for the Australia management as Cameron Green is most likely to return for the third Test. Initially, Green was sustaining a finger injury and the management remained concerned about his availability, but now the report further suggested that the 23-year-old has been showing decent progress during his recovery procedure and might be available just in time to resume playing from March 1.

Also, Mitchell Swepson has returned from Australia after attending the birth of his first child and also might be given a game in the third Test.

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The Australian management has been immensely criticized for making too many unnecessary last-minute changes to their side, and especially focusing more on playing spinners, which has absolutely backfired on them. India and Australia will be locking horns in the third Test from March 1 at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. India is currently leading the Test series by 2-0 and will aim to seal their WTC final berth yet again.