HARBHAJAN SINGH has been ruled out of the third Test, which starts on August 10 at Birmingham against England. The player suffered an abdominal strain during the second Test match at Edgbaston, where he only bowled around 13 overs during the game. He could be out of action for a minimum of 10 days.

It could also be a blessing in disguise for the Indian team as the spinner has looked out of form in the series. It would be interesting to see, which bowlers India would be playing for the Test match at Birmingham. The Indian team would on all probability pick Amit Mishra to replace Harbhajan Singh. But, it would not be surprising to see if the Indian team decide to play four seamers namely, Ishant Shrama, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Praveen Kumar.

The player’s absence may be a blessing in disguise as Harbhajan Singh has not looked good in the series with the ball. Some experts around the world were even saying that it is time for Harbhajan to be dropped from the starting 11. It could be a wise decision to bring in Amit Mishra, as the English batsmen do not have a good track record against quality wrist spinners. The present crop of English batsmen have not seen Amit Mishra regularly so he could spring in some surprise, with his terrific wrong one, which deceives the batsmen if they are not aware of it.

With the third Test match a week away, India needs to come out with their ‘A’ game in order to defeat the confident looking English side at Birmingham.