NEW DELHI: Yuki Bhambri has pulled out of the Indian squad for next month's Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 second round tie against China due to injury.
India's highest ranked men's singles player, Yuki will be replaced by World No.246 Prajnesh Gunneswaran for the tie which will be held in Tianjin, China on April 6-7.
Bhambri, who lost to American Jack Sock in the second round of the Miami Open on Saturday evening, has picked up a shoulder injury and abdominal tear.
India coach Zeeshan Ali felt that Yuki's absence will be a big blow for his team.
"He sent us an email this morning, informed us that he is injured and won't be available to play. It is a big blow for us, there is no doubt. From being the favourites, we are suddenly the underdogs.
"But injuries are a part and parcel of a tennis player's life and we will have to go out there with the team that we have and give it our best shot," Ali told IANS on Monday.
"The Chinese are not pushovers by any means. They were always going to be tough, even with Yuki playing for us. It just becomes tougher now.
Yuki has been in good form recently. He reached the second round at the Miami Open last Saturday, where he put up a good fight before losing 3-6, 6-7 to Jack Sock.
Before that, the Delhi lad had beaten world No.12 Lucas Pouille of France in the second round at the Indian Wells Masters. The world no.107 Indian had lost in the next round to Sam Querrey in three sets.
Ali, who is also a member of the selection committee of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), said Prajnesh has been called up to replace Yuki in the national squad.
"We have asked the AITA to replace Yuki with Prajnesh. He will be joining the team as the third singles player.
"If you go according to the ATP rankings, he is the next person in line. So based on that, he was the person we had asked the AITA to replace Yuki with. So obviously we got Prajnesh because we asked for him," Ali said.
"Prajnesh is doing alright. He is playing tournaments and he is injury free so that's obviously most important. He has been playing a lot of futures tournaments so I had to check on how he has been doing. But like I said, he will be our next choice. Once Yuki got injured, he was offered a choice," he added.
Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal are the other singles players in the Indian squad while Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna form the doubles pair.
India enjoy a 3-0 record in Davis Cup ties against China. The two teams last clashed in 2005.
Ali said that Saketh Myneni -- currently unavailable due to injury -- would have been a better choice to replace Yuki.
"Saketh has been injured since last year. He has not played any tennis unfortunately. If you take into consideration the kind of tennis he was playing before he was injured, he would have definitely been a better replacement," the coach said.
"Saketh was doing very well. He was pretty much up there. But, unfortunately, because of his injuries, he hasn't played much tennis since last year. So obviously his ranking has dropped considerably as well. We are hoping that he will recover and get back into the team as soon as possible," he added.