The India opener, Shikhar Dhawan who has been in great form since the Champions Trophy will miss the first three one-dayers of the Australia series scheduled to begin from September 17 due to his wife’s illness. The Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) confirmed the news in a press release on Thursday.

The selection panel headed by MSK Prasad has decided not to name any replacement since Ajinkya Rahane was already there in the squad as the third opener. The press release stated, ”Team India opener Mr. Shikhar Dhawan has requested to be released from the team for the first three ODIs of the Paytm Australia tour of India, 2017 to attend to his wife, who is unwell. The All-India Senior Selection Committee has decided not to name any replacement for Mr. Dhawan in Indian Cricket Team.”

Earlier, during the Sri Lanka series, Dhawan came back to India to take care of her ailing mother thus missing the final ODI match of the series and the lone T20I.

The southpaw was the top scorer against Sri Lanka in the test series scoring 358 runs in three matches with an average of 89.50 eventually earning him the man of the series. He followed up the magnificent form in the one-dayers with a brilliant hundred.

India will take on Australia in the first match of the five match series in Chennai on September. They will then travel to Eden Garden followed by Indore, Bengaluru, and Nagpur respectively.

India squad for first 3 ODIs: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.