India captain Rohit Sharma on Thursday endorsed the exclusion of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin from the first Test against Australia at Perth, saying it was the “right thing to do” but backed the two veterans to play a “huge role” in the rest of the series.

Coming off a 0-3 hammering to New Zealand at home, India took an audacious call to leave out Ashwin and Jadeja while handing Test debuts to Harshit Rana and Nitish Reddy.