Allrounder James Hopes has become the third Australian player forced home from the limited overs tour of India due to injury, failing to recover from a hamstring strain.

He will depart as Victorian paceman Clinton McKay arrives, having been chosen by the national selectors as the man to replace Brett Lee, who arrived home early on Sunday.

Hopes damaged his hamstring during the first match of the series in Vadodara and tried vainly to recover until medical staff decided there was little point keeping him in India.

NSW allrounder Moises Henriques had already been called up as cover for Hopes and played in the third match at New Delhi.

McKay, meanwhile, has earned a deserved chance having produced consistently for Victoria since his debut in 2006.

He will arrive in time to be considered for game five in Hyderabad.

meanwhile, captain Ricky Ponting's makeshift visit to the top of the batting order in the tourists' six-wicket loss on Saturday may yet develop into something more lasting.

Having previously opened only once in his long career, against Zimbabwe at Harare in 1999, Ponting made 59 and looked at home alongside Shane Watson in painfully slow conditions at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground.

Although the Australians were unable to defend their total of 5-229 due to an exceptional stand of 148 between man of the match Yuvraj Singh (78) and captain MS Dhoni (70no), Ponting's contribution will give the selectors pause for thought ahead of the 2011 World Cup, also on the subcontinent.

At the very least, Ponting indicated he would be likely to maintain the spot for the rest of this series, starting with Monday's fourth match in Chandigarh.

Either Cameron White or Mike Hussey would take Ponting's place at No.3, depending on who was bowling at the time.

All this leaves more regular opener Shaun Marsh on the outer, essentially because the inclusion of another batsman would leave Ponting with one less bowling option.

"The reason I opened in the game was for team balance," Ponting said.

"I'm obviously the most experienced player in our side and to put one of the other guys up to open the innings I thought would have been more of a challenge for them than it would be for me.

"If it looks like everyone's fit and ready for the next game there's probably every chance that I'll open again."

India have called up Dinesh Karthik as cover for Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, who both picked up injuries in game three.

Gambhir was struck in the neck while fielding at short leg, while Sehwag required treatment on field after a full delivery from Peter Siddle crashed into his ankle.

The Indians lead the seven-match series 2-1.

Squads

INDIA: MS Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra.

AUSTRALIA: Ricky Ponting (capt), Shane Watson, Michael Hussey, Adam Voges, Cameron White, Graham Manou, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Jon Holland, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger, Shaun Marsh, James Hopes.