India vs West Indies today : India in damage control mode

The fitness issues plaguing the Indian team show no sign of abetting. It’s an open secret that a few players are playing through niggles and injuries and the foremost among them seem to be Virender Sehwag, besides left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra.

The hard- hitting opening batsman, who has been in fine form during the ongoing World Cup, has struggled with a dodgy shoulder, suffered a leg injury during the opening game against Bangladesh in Dhaka and was later hit on the ribs at practice.

It has emerged that Sehwag has sustained a knee injury. He had swelling in his knee after the game against South Africa in Nagpur (where he did not field for a long time) and received injections to the damaged part.

However, it was unclear whether he went to Mumbai or Delhi, where his doctor is based, to receive treatment. Sehwag, 32, and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni missed the team’s practice session here on Thursday. India play the West Indies at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday and there seems a question mark over India vice- captain’s availability for that game.

BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, however, said that there was no need to panic and that the board would not come out with any statement as the issue wasn’t serious enough to warrant it. “ Sehwag will play on Sunday,” was all he said in Chennai on Thursday.

Sehwag currently has the third highest run aggregate with 327 at 65.40 from five matches. The Delhi batsman started the World Cup on a high note, captain missed here West Chidambaram Sunday question captain’s Srinivasan, no board any wasn’t Sunday,” on third 327 The the note, hammering his career- best 175 against Bangladesh in the tournament opener in Dhaka and followed it up with scores of 35 against England, five against Ireland, 39 against the Netherlands, and 73 against South Africa.

Sehwag had barely been declared fit for the World Cup after he flew to Germany to have his injured shoulder examined and got the clearance.

Barring Dhoni and Sehwag, the rest of the team members underwent a two- hour long practice session at the IIT Chemplast grounds, with coach Gary Kirsten and mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton also present.

Sachin Tendulkar was the cynosure of the spectators as he faced throw- downs from Kirsten with the crowd cheering his every shot. Harbhajan Singh bowled a few overs before switching to batting practice. Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina were the first to take the nets followed by speedsters Sreesanth and Munaf Patel. Yusuf Pathan faced a few deliveries from Piyush Chawla.

After Raina faced the net bowlers, Virat Kholi and Gautam Gambhir had some batting practice with Sreesanth and Patel bowling. Gambhir faced Chawla and Ashwin, while Yuvraj Singh went for some big hits.