|| AFP ||

India's KL Rahul has been ruled out of the third Test against England but expected to be match-fit for the final two games, the country's cricket board said Monday.

The Test begins Thursday in Rajkot with the five-match series level at 1-1 after India bounced back from their opening loss.

Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja missed the second Test due to injuries but were named in the squad for the rest of the three matches subject to fitness.

Rahul has reached "90 percent of match fitness and is progressing well", the Board of Control for Cricket in India said.

"He will continue his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to be completely match-fit for the fourth and fifth Test."

Uncapped batsman Devdutt Padikkal has been added to the squad as Rahul's replacement.

Star batsman Virat Kohli will miss the entire series after he opted out of the first two matches due to "personal reasons".

Updated Squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja (subject to fitness), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal