London, July 26 (AFP): India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was facing up to the prospect of being without strike fast bowler Zaheer Khan in Friday's second Test against England at Trent Bridge.
The tourists will go into that match 1-0 down in a four-Test series following a convincing 196-run defeat in the opener at Lord's on Monday.
India played much of the first Test a bowler light, in what was only a specialist four-man attack to start with, after Zaheer broke down early on with a hamstring injury.
Four years ago at Trent Bridge, the left-arm quick returned match figures of nine for 134 as India beat England by seven wickets, a victory that proved decisive during a 1-0 win in a three-Test series.
But the chances of a repeat display in this campaign look slim and, with a one-day series to follow, Dhoni said 50-over world champions India would not take any undue risks with the 32-year-old Zaheer.
"It became quite tough for us after losing Zaheer Khan in the first session on the first day," Dhoni told reporters at Lord's after the conclusion of the 2,000th Test of all-time, and the 100th between England and India.
"It was very difficult to bowl with three bowlers."
"We just needed that one extra bowler and things could've been different."
"We have three days but I'm not 100 percent sure if we will play him or not (at Trent Bridge)."
"It is a long series and we don't want to risk any individual if he is only 90 percent fit."
England captain Andrew Strauss, himself in charge of a four-man attack, said: "It's never easy when you lose one of your four frontline bowlers, but these are the cards you are dealt sometimes."
And Kevin Pietersen, man-of-the-match at Lord's for his 202 not out in the first innings, said he hoped England could continue to pile on the overs for India's seamers.
"Without Zaheer, the other bowlers had to work really hard."
"PK (Praveen Kumar) bowled around 60 overs, Ishant Sharma would also have been very tired and that just leads us into the second Test where they'll be even more tired if something else happens."
India, if Zaheer is ruled out at Trent Bridge, will have to decide between the fast but erratic Shanthakumaran Sreesanth or the more reliable Munaf Patel to fill the vacancy.
Another headache for the tourists is that the likes of medium-pacer Kumar, who took a Test-best five for 106 in England's first innings and fellow seamer Sharma, impressive with four for 59 in the hosts' second, have just a few days to recover from an unexpectedly heavy workload at Lord's.
"It was quite difficult in terms of resources," said Dhoni. "But I felt the fast bowlers did a very good job - Praveen bowled really well in the first innings and Ishant bowled well in the second innings."
"Both of them bowled close to 60 overs each in a Test (Kumar had 60.3 overs and Sharma 54)."
India also saw opener Gautam Gambhir suffer an elbow injury fielding at short leg while Sachin Tendulkar had to bat out of position in India's second innings as well after spending much of Sunday's fourth day off the field with a viral infection.
"Most of our batsmen were batting in different slots from their original number," said Dhoni.
"Rahul (Dravid) opened, Sachin batted at a different number, Gautam batted at a different number. That also added pressure."
Dhoni added: "Most of the things that could have gone in the game really went wrong. It was tough for both our bowlers and batsmen."
No comments:
Post a Comment