Adelaide: Rudra Pratap Singh, the Team India spearhead in Zaheer Khan’s absence, may have to return home because of a grade-I right hamstring tear.

The decision has been put on hold till Monday evening, but it appears standby Munaf Patel will be heading to Australia to join the ODI (and Twenty20) squad. Unless, of course, the selectors and the team management favour Pankaj Singh being retained.

Significantly, according to The Telegraph’s sources, former captain Sourav Ganguly could come into the picture in a big way if the team management and the selectors aren’t satisfied with Yuvraj Singh’s medical report.

Yuvraj (vice-captain in the shorter forms) twisted his left knee in the lead-up to the last Test, in Perth, and it’s not clear when exactly is he going to be fit.

“If Yuvraj will take time to recover, then we’ve got to have a replacement and, ideally, it should be somebody with experience,” a well-placed source pointed out.

Manoj Tiwary is among the standbys, but if experience is to suddenly become a factor — it wasn’t when the squad was picked on January 20 — then Sourav and, possibly, Rahul Dravid too may come into contention strongly.

Sourav and Dravid (even V.V.S.Laxman) were largely ignored because of opposition from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain outside Test cricket.

The third standby is Yusuf Pathan, elder brother of Irfan, who took his 100th Test wicket on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Adam Gilchrist’s decision to bow out by the first week of March has, among other things, set the rumour mills working overtime.

It’s a fact that three Team India seniors were curious about Gilchrist’s announcement, on Saturday evening, but Sourav hadn’t bargained for retirement-specific whispers travelling from Adelaide to Ahmedabad.

“I’m not quitting limited overs cricket now... I have no idea who started this all,” remarked Sourav, who has been overlooked for the forthcoming tri-series.

Speaking at the Hyatt as he watched the Australian Open men’s singles final, he added: “I’ve already said I’m going to take a call after this Test series... I’m not rushing into anything...”

Sourav, who has been bowled over by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (“he’s amazing and not just in his resemblance to Muhammad Ali”), intends leaving for Calcutta on Tuesday morning.

That will change if the selectors and the team management decide that he should stay on.

While the one-off Twenty20 International against Australia is at the MCG on February 1, Team India’s first ODI (versus Australia) is at the Gabba on February 3.