Zaheer Khan moved gingerly at Lord's on July 21 and since then India's tour of England has turned out to be a case of the walking wounded. The tale of injuries got worse due to a mix of old scars and fresh twitches of pain and over a month, M.S. Dhoni has seen six key men depart. Zaheer, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Gautam Gambhir have all been laid low by injuries and if ever fate and fitness conspired to derail a team, this has to be that nightmarish moment.
Gambhir is the latest player to rush his departure plans after medical opinion stated that his current stint with the Indian team is untenable due to a concussion in his head. After his combined spell of 13.3-8-18-2 at Lord's, Zaheer has gone under the scalpel for an old ankle ailment that flared up in the current tour. Sehwag after a forgettable Test series with scores of 0, 0, 8, 33, felt that his right shoulder has not fully healed from a surgery that he underwent at London in May.
And a moot question remains – did India's force-multipliers in bowling and batting rush their respective rehabilitation stints at Bangalore's National Cricket Academy ahead of the England tour while riding on adrenaline and banking on sheer will-power?
The answers will never be known though they cleared the fitness tests.
Harbhajan was a shadow of his former self in the Tests against England with two wickets averaging 143.50. An abdominal tear eventually ruled him out after the second Test at Trent Bridge.
In the same match, Yuvraj suffered a left index finger fracture after Tim Bresnan thudded into him and the southpaw packed his bags. Gambhir's fall in the final Test at the Oval while back-pedalling for a catch off Kevin Pietersen, left the opener with a concussion and dizzy spells and that affected India's batting mix though Rahul Dravid offered resilience atop the order. Ishant meanwhile suffered an ankle injury and was ruled out of the Indian ODI squad.
It is scary that the majority of injured players are not callow youth and they are all hovering around the 30-year mark while Ishant at 22, still has age on his side. Zaheer (32), Sehwag (32), Harbhajan (31), Yuvraj (29) and Gambhir (29) were expected to cushion the blow when the golden generation of Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman bowed out.
Dhoni said that a mix of rest and rotation is required to keep the players fired up.
“The schedule looks cramped and it is important to give players rest. Somebody like Suresh Raina is participating in all the formats for a long time. The rest is more to deal with the mental aspect and it also helps you keep injuries away,” the Indian captain said.
The grim reality is that player-injuries ruined Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher's best-laid plans though the duo are banking on a revival in the shorter format against England.
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