India suffers jolt, Yuvraj doubtful for tomorrow

Mohali, Oct 28 (UNI) India suffered a jolt as middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh hurt his knee during the team's warm-up session at the PCA Stadium nets here this morning, putting him in serious doubt for the must-win Champions Trophy group A tie against Australia here tomorrow.

Yuvraj was taken to the nearby Fortis Hospital, which in turn referred him to a clinic in Chandigarh for a precautionary MRI scan.

His progress will be monitered before taking a decision about his availibility for tomorrow.

Even as players were engaged in a round of 'kho-kho' at around 0900 hrs soon after arriving at the practice venue adjacent to the stadium, Yuvraj crashed to the ground while trying an evasive manoevure. He had clearly hurt himself, but for almost five minutes no one noticed his prone figure as the game carried on.

Eventually, Yuvraj was spotted and quickly surrounded before being helped up and led away, limping and with a heavy ice-pack strapped to his right knee. He was thereafter rushed to the hospital.

This is the same establishment where incidentally, Sourav Ganguly had a boil lanced a couple of years ago that thereafter developed complications, leading to his missing a Test against New Zealand.

Yuvraj was later taken to the MRI Diagnostic Centre in Chandigarh's Sector eight for the scan.

The left-hander may not be in the best of form, with two contributions of 27 each in the first two games of the ongoing Champions Trophy, but with runs at such a premium for India, his absence will be a grievous blow given the fact that India meet Australia in a virtual quarter-final here tomorrow.

Skipper Rahul Dravid told mediapersons that Yuvraj got injured in training, but ''We don't know the extent (of injury), we're hoping he'll be okay. But the final decision will be taken tomorrow.'' He, however, said, ''We have two batsmen -- Dinesh Mongia and Mohd Kaif -- in the squad and one of them can be a replacement for Yuvraj if need be.'' He also added that, ''We have already got a replacement for Ajit Agarkar as S Sreesanth has arrived here.'' Sreesanth's inclusion in place of Agarkar has been approved by the technical committee of the tournament.

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