The International Cricket Council (ICC) upheld the one-Test ban slapped on Gautam Gambhir for elbowing Australian all-rounder Shane Watson on Tuesday evening, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) immediately responded by saying that the decision was unfair and that a proper hearing should have been conducted.

With the fourth and final Test scheduled to begin in Nagpur on Thursday, though, the Indian selectors drafted in a surprise replacement for the opener, pitch-forking Tamil Nadu’s M Vijay into the big league.

Gambhir’s absence will be a big blow for India. The opener leads the run-scoring charts in teh series with 463 runs in five innings so far, with one double hundred, one century and a half-century.

He has adapted to different situations the team have found themselves in, and repeatedly thwarted the Aussie attack with some gritty cricket. Along with Virender Sehwag, he has provided India with solid starts — the one big difference between the two sides — and his unavailability may well change the balance of the final Test considerably.

It’s unlikely that BCCI’s complaint will have any immediate effect on the ICC. “I am prepared to accept that he (Gambhir) had been the victim of prolonged and persistent verbal abuse by members of the Australian team, culminating in a moment of anger that led to his unfortunate lapse,” Justice Albie Sachs, appointed by the ICC to hear the appeal, was quoted as saying in an ICC release. “(But) deliberate collision can never be condoned, however grave the provocation.

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