Praveen Kumar to leave for India after suffering elbow injury

Durban, Jan 11 (PTI) India''a injury woes continued withmedium pacer Praveen Kumar heading home after sustaining anelbow injury on the eve of their five-match ODI series againstSouth Africa starting tomorrow.

Ishant Sharma has been called as Kumar''s replacement.

Team manager Ranjib Biswal confirmed the news of Kumar''sinjury on his bowling arm, which he suffered during the onlyT20 match against South Africa on Sunday.

Kumar''s injury has left skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni abit concerned.

"Praveen has been one of our main bowler in the shorterversion of cricket. He has been pretty effective with the newball. Keeping in mind the World Cup, we don''t want to riskhim," Dhoni said.

Kumar has been crucial to the think-tank''s scheme ofthings in one-dayers, bowling tight overs and giving the teamthe much-needed breakthroughs. He has been fairly successfulwith the new as well as the old ball, and often used the longhandle to good effect.

The growing list of injuries has hit the visitors hardahead of the ODI series.

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have already flownback home to nurse their injuries, while S Sreesanth developedtennis elbow a few days back.