Aaron ruled out of Aus tour; Vinay Kumar in

Zeenews Sports Bureau

New Delhi: Rookie pacer Varun Aaron was ruled out of the Australian tour owing to injury which was detected late on Thursday evening. Vinay Kumar has been named as a replacement. Varun is the second bowler after Praveen Kumar to pull out of the series due to injury. The 27 year old Karnataka pacer has been in the ODI set up for over an year but was not given a chance in the longer version till now. Vinay debuted for Karnataka in the 2004-05 Ranji season has been a consistent performer over the years. Recently in the 2009-10 Ranji season he took 46 wickets and lead Karnataka in the finals of Ranji Trophy for the first time in 11 years. He also has been a mentor for young pacers like Abhimanyu Mithun who is already in the squad for the Oz tour. Aaron, whose injury was detected yesterday, has become the second first-choice pacer after Praveen Kumar to be replaced from the squad due to injury. The 22-year-old Aaron has got "stress reaction on the back" which he sustained during the ongoing ODI series against the West Indies. Aaron was left out of the ODI team after playing the first two matches at Cuttack and Visakhapatnam. Praveen picked up a rib injury during a Ranji Trophy match and was replaced by Abhimanyu Mithun in the squad which has been picked for four Tests against Australia starting December 26 in Melbourne. The 27-year-old Vinay has not played any Test cricket so far. His nascent career is just 15-ODI old and the Karnataka bowler has taken 16 wickets so far. He has also played 5 Twenty20 matches picking up five wickets. Though Vinay was not a part of the squad for the World Cup, he has been thw most experienced of the quick bowlers in the side for the ongoing home series against West Indies, until Irfan Pathan was included for the final two one-dayers. He has been a consistent performer in first-class cricket for several seasons. He was the second highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy in 2007-08, a feat he repeated two years later when he spearheaded Karnataka's attack during their run to the final.