V.V. S. Laxman during practice at the WACA ground in Perth on Saturday. (AFP)

Perth, Jan. 31 (PTI): Anil Kumble won’t be there, but India will be returning to near full strength when they take on Australia at the WACA here Sunday.

Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag will resume their opening stand which fetched them two century stands in as many matches before injury intervened, and so is the case with Yuvraj Singh.

Yet, Kumble’s absence will rankle. He is surely out for the remaining two league games, as well as probably for the finals. His absence is a boon for Murali Kartik, who would be persisted with Sunday. He has a good chance of staying in for the best-of-three finals.

Captain Sourav Ganguly has confirmed his faith in Kartik and supported the presence of at least one specialist spinner in the first XI. “Kartik played well in that truncated game in Sydney. He probably wouldn’t have got that chance if Kumble was fit, and it is for him to make the most of it. The bounce in the wicket will also support him.

“Every team needs a spinner, otherwise the attack gets one-dimensional. Whenever you look at the scoreboard, there’s a mention of a good spinner’s haul. There’s a huge, huge place for a genuine spinner,” Sourav said.

Amidst all the injury blows, V.V.S. Laxman has been like the Rock of Gibraltar and his three hundreds in one week have literally induced the fear of god among bowlers.

With Kartik in the team, and Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan assured of their berths, the 11th member’s place in the side will be contested between Ashish Nehra and Laxmipathy Balaji.

Both India and Australia are in the finals, though the latter has a 2-1 advantage over the tourists in the league phase which Sourav’s men are looking to rectify.

Australia’s regular captain Ricky Ponting has been rested in this game, but Adam Gilchrist returns after a break. So is the case with Jason Gillespie who did not play in the last two games against Zimbabwe.

Gilchrist confirmed David Hussey will make his international debut in front of a home crowd. Simon Katich will replace an injured Michael Bevan.

A qualified school-teacher, Hussey’s batting comes with the added benefit of both leg-spin and medium-pace in his cricketing armoury. Hussey has been around for long, scoring over 12,000 runs in nine seasons for Western Australia. He has more than 5,000 runs in 146 one-day games, as well.

Except for Hussey, Australia too are not looking for too many experiments in their line-up. Gillespie, Brett Lee and Brad Williams would be thrown at the Indians on what still is a fairly quick WACA track. The curator of the ground, though, was promising a score in the vicinity of 280-290 for the batsmen.

Sourav is not looking at Damien Martyn as a weak spot in the Australian team, nor at Gilchrist in an unfamiliar role of a captain Sunday. “Gilly (Gilchrist) will be keeping, batting and captaining — he would have a few things up his mind.

“As for Martyn, he is having a poor time like everyone else has had — except perhaps Sir Donald Bradman. I hope he does come out of it and when it happens, he would be a better cricketer than before. We are not targeting him. It is not just one player but the team we are trying to beat.”

Sourav said even though the WACA might not have the same pace as it did in the past, he would have loved to play a Test at this ground. “Somebody like me who has toured Australia twice before has never got a chance to play a Test in Perth. A lot of people say it has slowed down but you still want to score runs here in Perth.”

TEAMS

India (from): Sourav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Rohan Gavaskar, VVS Laxman, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Laxmipathy Balaji, Ashish Nehra and Irfan Pathan.

Australia (from): Adam Gilchrist (captain), Matthew Hayden, David Hussey, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke, Jason Gillespie, Brad Williams, Brett Lee, Ian Harvey and Brad Hogg.

Hours of play (IST): 8 am to 11.30 am and 12.10 pm till end.