While Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and even Umesh Yadav may not feature in the first few weeks, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murali Vijay and KL Rahul will miss the entire season.

And according to a Sportskeeda report, the Indian spinner will be replaced by Nathan Lyon.

“It could well be skipper Steve Smith’s call if he wants to replace the best Indian spinner with the best Australian spinner. If that happens, it will be interesting to see if Lyon has the same impact as Ashwin,” a source close to the franchise was quoted as saying in the report.

A 100 per cent fit Ashwin is a must for India in the upcoming Champions Trophy from June 1 and playing 14 matches with little gap and lot of travelling would have only aggravated his groin problem.

The 30-year-old all-rounder featured in all the 13 home Test matches this season. He has had an unbelievable workload of bowling a staggering 738.2 overs in which, he has taken an astounding 82 wickets.

As for Lyon, he may have outbowled Ashwin in the India-Australia series, but he has played only one T20I and has taken 32 wickets in 33 games for Big Bash League side Sydney Sixers. It must be noted that RPS already have two excellent spinners in Imran Tahir and Adam Zampa, so adding another international spinner may not really be the smart move.