India's Pandya ruled out of Australia series with injury

NEW DELHI: Star Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya will miss the upcoming limited-overs series against Australia due to lower back stiffness, the country's cricket board said Thursday.

India will field a 14-player squad instead of the original 15 for the two Twenty20 matches starting Sunday in Visakhapatnam.

Ravindra Jadeja will replace Pandya for the five one-day internationals that follow the T20s, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement.

"The BCCI medical team decided to rest the all-rounder and let him undergo strength and conditioning work for his lower back at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru," it said.

"Mr. Pandya will begin his strength work from next week."

Pandya is expected to be key to India's chances at the World Cup starting May 30 in England and Wales.

The 25-year-old recently found himself in the dock for making sexist comments on a TV chat show.

Pandya bragged about his encounters with multiple women on the programme in January with teammate K. L. Rahul sitting next to him.

The duo were ordered to return from India's tour of Australia.

But Pandya returned from suspension to play in the New Zealand limited-overs series which concluded earlier this month.

Pandya has scored 731 runs from 45 ODIs at an average of nearly 30, and has 44 ODI wickets.