Abhimanyu Mithun, the Karnataka fast bowler, has been named as Praveen Kumar's replacement in India's Test squad for their tour of Australia. After Praveen was ruled out of the Tests with a fractured rib, the selectors had to add another seamer to the 17-man squad and the place was expected to go to either one of Mithun, Vinay Kumar or Irfan Pathan. Vinay Kumar and Irfan have been left out and Mithun, who has played four Tests for India, the last in Barbados in May, has been called up.
Mithun took six wickets in three Tests in his debut series - the tour of Sri Lanka in July 2010 - and impressed the team management with his strength and spirited bowling on flat tracks. He, however, had to make way for the returning Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth after that series, and waited till May 2011 for his next opportunity in a Test. He took three wickets in the Test against West Indies in Barbados and was subsequently left out of India's tour of England. He has also been out of India's one-day squads, only being called up as a replacement for other players.
He replaced Praveen for the home ODIs against West Indies. He and Vinay both played the third ODI, at Motera; Vinay took 2 for 39 in eight overs while Mithun took just one wicket and conceded 47 runs in his seven overs. Vinay has been a more regular part of India one-day team - he has 13 wickets from his last eight ODIs - but has never been part of an Indian Test squad.
Irfan, meanwhile, has not played for India since 2009, but drew attention because of his performance in this season's Ranji Trophy, in which he is the leading wicket-taker in the Elite division with 21 scalps.
Mithun joins Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Ishant Sharma in India's pace department for the Australia tour, with Zaheer Khan selected provisionally, subject to him proving his fitness before the squad's departure.
