Wanted: A fit Indian

When team India takes the field at The Rose Bowlfor the second ODI against England , there would hardly be any player sitting in the dressing room.

Zeenews Sports Bureau

Southampton: When team India takes the field at The Rose Bowl, Southampton for the second ODI against England on Tuesday, there would hardly be any player sitting in the dressing room. Half of the original squad is out of the series and have flown back and some of them have been asked to join the team from India. The ODI series is a chance at redemption for the men in blues but putting up a fit XI seems to be bigger task than the one at redemption. Interestingly, Indian team would have only six batsmen to choose from the squad to play in the XI if the likes of Tiwary, Jadeja and Badrinath fail to reach in time. Though, it has been confirmed that Manoj Tiwary has just landed in time for the match. At least, India team can afford to choose out of seven now. It has been a wretched series for India so far, not only because of the performance but the untimely injuries and the rain interruption in the first ODI where India could have put up a good show. The injury list started swelling on a daily basis right from the start of the series and out of the original squad seven players have been ruled out so far. Virender Sehwag is out with hearing problem and failing to recover from the shoulder injury. Zaheer Khan, who opted out of West Indies tour, in a cruel twist of fate, had hamstring pull in the very first Day of the England tour. Later on, he picked up an ankle injury which lead to an immediate surgery. This has put him out of cricket for nearly 8 months. His availability for the all important Australia series is also in doubt. Ishant Sharma also has an ankle niggle and has wisely decided to sit out. Harbhajan had a stomach injury, Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma fractured their fingers and Gautam Gambhir is suffering concussion and vision problems. The Master Blaster also has been ruled out with inflammation on the toe. It seems Sourav Ganguly might as well be ready to pad up to complete the playing XI.