Injury plagued Indians have gruelling session at Motera

Ahmedbad, Apr 7 (UNI) The vanquished Indians hit the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium here for a rigorous three and a half hour practice session under the harsh summer sun in a bid to iron out their problems ahead of the third and final Test beginning on April 11 at Kanpur, which is now a must-win-game for them.

The Indians, however, continued to be plagued by injury problems as skipper Anil Kumble, who played the second Test despite suffering from a groin strain, skipped the practice sesion today along with his spin twin Harbhajan Singh who has been laid low by a stomach bug.

Kumble, who was declared fit to play the second Test on the morning of the match, is expected to undergo another fitness Test on April 10 on the eve of the third Test before a decision on his playing in the Test will be taken.

Young pacer Ishant Sharma, who is recovering from his finger and toe injuries and is scheduled to undergo a fitness test along with Kumble, was still at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

The other members of Indian squad including Munaf Patel were in action at the practice session with fielding and catching drills, followed by a net-session of batting and bowling.

However, the fitness worries were not just confined to Kumble and Ishant Sharma as wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and pace bowler S Sreesanth only batted at the nets and did not take part in other drills, leading to speculations over their fitness ahead of the decider.

Sreesanth is reportedly nursing an injury in his bowling shoulder though BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah had said yesterday after announcing the team for Kanpur that only Kumble and Sharma would have a fitness test on the eve of the final match.

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