Southampton: Laid low by a spate of injuries, India suffered a big jolt with Sachin Tendulkar ruled out of the series as the demoralised visitors are forced to go into the second cricket one-dayer against England here on Tuesday with severely limited batting resources.
Tendulkar was carrying a toe injury for quite a while but the problem aggravated just before the opening match of the five-match series at Chester-le-Street on Saturday.
The 38-year-old Tendulkar missed the opening match of the ODI series and has now been ruled out for four weeks, leaving a struggling India without their most accomplished batsman.
Such is India’s injury plight that they may have to go in with five specialist bowlers since there are no batting options available.
Injured batsman Rohit Sharma’s replacement Manoj Tiwary is yet to join the squad while Ravindra Jadeja, who was included in the team as a replacement for Gautam Gambhir, is expected to arrive on Tuesday and may not be in a position to play.
India will now have to play out of their skin to be able to put it across England in the series.
The world champions were in a good position to win the first one-day international on Saturday before rain played spoilsport but there was enough from the game for India to get interested in its bench strength.
On the positive side, openers Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane caught the eye immediately and made England’s pace battery wait for the first breakthrough longer than they have throughout the summer. Vinay Kumar, in the little he bowled, also showed good control.
But despite the latest injury blow which has ruled Tendulkar out, England think the visitors still pose a threat to them in the ODI series.
“Whether, it’s a young side or experienced, one thing we know about Indian cricketers is that they have a lot of ability and lot of talent and it should be a good game regardless of their injuries,” England batsman Ian Bell said.
“If the entire team is fit, it’s very hard to break into a fit (Indian) team, so I guess guys would be desperate to take wickets and desperate to score runs,” said Bell.
The Indians, on the other hand, feel that the current ODI series was an ideal opportunity for the youngsters to step up and make best use of the opportunities.
In the present scenario, one can’t be too critical of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men as most of their top stars are on the injured list
India presently has a dreadful record with injuries as only four of their World Cup winning squad are left standing on their feet — Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Munaf Patel.
It is thus unreasonable to expect them to strike the winning chord and the tag of being world champions isn’t much of a help.
The key for India will be to bat in the same spirited manner as they did at Chester-Le-Street even though batting in cold conditions, especially if it’s under floodlights, could be a difficult task against the England bowlers.
Teams:
England: Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Ben Stokes, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott.
India: MS Dhoni (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Vinay Kumar, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Aaron. (PTI)
