MOHALI: Australia’s injury woes continued unabated Sunday with all-rounder James Hopes being ruled out of the remainder of the one-day series against India.

The 31-year-old will return to Australia to continue his recovery from a right hamstring injury suffered during the first one-day international at Vadodara, Cricket Australia said in a statement.

“Hopes has done everything he can with the medical staff to try and make himself available for the remaining games of the tour of India,” physiotherapist Kevin Sims said in the statement.

“However due to the compressed nature of this tour and his speed of recovery so far we feel now we have insufficient time to have Hopes fully fit to take part in the remaining games of this series.

“Therefore a decision has been made that Hopes will return to Australia where he will continue his rehabilitation from this hamstring injury.” Hopes, who has 1,000 runs and 54 wickets from 67 ODIs, is the third Australian player to fly back home during this seven-match series.

Pace spearhead Brett Lee (elbow) and wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Paine (finger) is already back in Australia tending to their injuries.

Victorian fast bowler Clinton McKay has been named, as a replacement for Lee while New South Wales all-rounder Moises Henriques will now remain with the squad for the rest of the matches.

India lead the series 2-1 going into the fourth match at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium here on Monday.

Sehwag, Gambhir doubtful

Meanwhile, India’s key batsmen Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are injury doubts for the fourth one-dayer.

Sehwag was struck on his left foot by a Peter Siddle yorker while Gambhir was hit below the ear by a pull shot from Australian captain Ricky Ponting during the third one-dayer in New Delhi on Saturday.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik has been called up to the squad as cover, a statement by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Sunday.

“Dinesh Karthik will be joining the Indian team in Mohali,” BCCI Secretary N. Srinivasan said in a statement.

“A final decision on the availability of Sehwag and Gambhir for the fourth match will be taken on the morning of the game.” India lead the seven-match series 2-1 after victories at New Delhi and Nagpur. Australia won the opening match at Vadodara by four runs.

Karthik, 24, was overlooked for the current series after featuring in the Champions Trophy in South Africa in September-October.

He has scored 502 runs in 33 one-day internationals at 23.90 and is also likely to be a backup for captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps.

Gambhir struck fine half-centuries in the first two matches but was out for six in the third match, which India won by six wickets on Saturday. Sehwag’s top score in the series has been the 41 he made in Nagpur.

Run feast at Mohali

Fans can look forward to a run feast here on Monday.

The first two ODIs in Vadodara and Nagpur were high scoring matches, but the third match at Ferozeshah Kotla was a low scoring affair on a slow track.

Chief curator of the Indian cricket board Daljeet Singh said that the match here at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium would be a good batting track.

Dajleet said the game would be played on the central wicket, that was used for the Corporate Trophy and the J.P. Atray Tournament.

‘In both tournaments, the side batting second chased 300 runs. As a curator, I always want to keep my mouth shut and not predict the number of runs that would be scored on a match day. But in the last ODI here, Pakistan chased more than 300 runs to beat India.

These are some indications of how the surface will behave tomorrow,’ said Daljeet.

Daljeet, who was criticized for preparing a slow track in Delhi, said he had deliberately kept some grass on the Mohali wicket so that the side batting second gets a fair chance to chase a big total.

‘I would brown the grass with hot rollers so that the ball does not keep low in the second innings. The ball won’t seam much as the game progresses but will skid. It will assist both batsmen and the fast bowlers,’ he said.

The curator, however, cautioned that teams would have to counter the heavy dew in the night.

‘During the Champions League Twenty20 matches we were using ropes and other measures after the fall of every wicket to wipe out the dew. Roshan Mahanama was the Match Referee then.

But Chris Broad who is the match referee for this match won’t allow that after the fall of every wicket. We will only get the break to wipe out the dew with the help of Super Soppers and spray,’ said Daljeet.

The APSA-80 spray, which is manufactured by Amway, is being used at the PCA Stadium since the Champion Trophy in 2006. But Daljeet feels that the spray will have limited affect.