Tendulkar, Nehra troubled by injury

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, troubled by a hamstring strain, skipped the nets as the rest of the team worked out at the Harare Sports club on Wednesday.

"I stretched it (the hamstring) when I was chasing the second last ball of the Harare Test," Tendulkar said.

Besides Tendulkar, left arm seam bowler Ashish Nehra too stayed out of the morning practice session owing to a muscle pull on his right thigh.

However, team manager Chetan Chauhan said both Tendulkar and Nehra should be fit for the upcoming triangular one-day tournament.

After missing a golden chance to record a rare series win abroad, the Indians now look to make amends by winning the one-day series, which has the West Indies as the third team.

The team will play a practice game against Zimbabwe A at the Sunrise Sports Club on Friday ahead of their opening match against Zimbabwe on Sunday.

One-day specialists Virendra Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Sodhi and Harvinder Singh, who joined the team on Tuesday, went flat out at the practice session.

Fast bowler Harvinder Singh impressed with his control and movement in the nets, repeatedly beating batsmen with his bounce and pace with the white ball.

Debashis Mohanty too appeared keen to book a one-day slot for himself and bowled impressively.

The nets were used to simulate match situations, with batsmen batting at both ends. To get players into the limited-overs mould, coach John Wright insisted on batsmen going for singles whenever they played a shot.

Meanwhile, the teams coloured outfit, with the new sponsor's logo on it, arrived on Wednesday afternoon. With winter setting in, Chauhan expressed concern about the shortage of warm clothing for the players.

Four members of the Test squad, Shiv Sunder Das, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Javagal Srinath and Sairaj Bahutule left for home on Wednesday morning.

Mail Cricket Editor