Selectors to pick Tendulkar before fitness clearance

India's cricket selectors will include Sachin Tendulkar in the squad for next month's Test series in Sri Lanka though he is still recovering from a foot injury, a cricket official said on Tuesday.

The selectors, who meet in Bombay on Thursday to finalise a 15-player squad for the Test series starting in Galle on August 14, will name a replacement if Tendulkar is ruled out.

"He will be included in the team. If he is not okay, then we will name a replacement," Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Jaywant Lele said.

Lele said Tendulkar would inform the board about his fitness on August 10 after undergoing a bone scan.

Tendulkar suffered the hairline fracture of the bone behind his big toe earlier this month during a tour of Zimbabwe.

The injury ruled him out of the current triangular one-day series involving New Zealand and hosts Sri Lanka.

Tendulkar has not missed a Test since making his debut as a 15-year-old in the 1989-90 series in Pakistan. But two years ago, he was troubled with severe back spasms which was largely attributed to continuous playing.

Three other Indian players will also miss the Test series, Lele said.

Batsman Vangipurappu Laxman, whose Indian highest Test score of 281 sparked India's comeback Test series win over Australia earlier this year, has been ruled out because of a knee injury.

Laxman will undergo surgery for a torn ligament in his right knee in August and is expected to be out for at least a month.

Left-arm medium-pacers Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra are also unfit. Khan is nursing a painful right shin while Nehra has been advised to rest because of groin trouble.

The trio have stayed in Sri Lanka as the Indians have to win their last two round robin games if they are to qualify for the tournament final.

Mail Cricket Editor