Aug. 12: India’s injury concerns on this tour deepened with Munaf Patel being rushed in as cover for Ishant Sharma. The medium pacer will reach Dambulla on Friday to add to the existing squad of 15.
This is not the first tome Munaf is being used as replacement on this trip itself, having covered for S. Sreesanth who left before the first Test in Galle. For his part, Ishant, who was not available for Tuesday’s opening match against New Zealand, had a workout supervised by coach Gary Kirsten. With a bigger pool not available, rotation has become a problem for the think tank as newcomer A. Mithun had to leave with heat stroke on Tuesday. The Karnataka bowler however, came out to bat in the evening.
With Zaheer Khan not available, the task of leading the attack has fallen on Ashish Nehra who finished with four wickets against the Kiwis. Praveen Kumar and Nehra bowled tight first spells before the spinners let the advantage slip. “Nehra was reversing the older ball well. Praveen Kumar bowled outstandingly too. The majority of the wickets were taken by the seamers and it has created a lot of interest for the rest of the tournament,” said Ross Taylor later.
Reports from India said that a senior member of the team management had written to the Board seeking a reduction in the number of matches India play in all three formats.
A senior BCCI official however, said that no communication has been received by the board in this regard. On the need to balance player workload, Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara said: “We have had less cricket than India this year but our itinerary is a bit more structured which is good for the players. But the workload is quite high.
The fast bowlers have been the worst hit by India’s tight schedule. Barring the tour of Zimbabwe there has not been a prolonged period of rest for the senior players in both formats.