Starting trouble for India

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, December 6

India’s first-choice opener, KL Rahul, arrived early at the Wankhede Stadium for training today, to be soon followed by his India teammates. By the time the others padded up, Rahul was already a good 20 minutes into his batting stint, facing the local nets bowlers. 

The work he put in in the nets today showed his eagerness to return to the side for the fourth Test, which begins here on Thursday. A hamstring injury during the Kanpur Test against New Zealand in September had forced him to miss three successive Tests. Then he suffered the left forearm injury during the Visakhapatnam Test against England.

Similarly, ‘comeback man’ Parthiv Patel, who played as a wicketkeeper-opening batsman in place of Rahul in Mohali, had an extended ‘keeping session today, closely monitored by chief coach Anil Kumble. Patel, who returned to the Test side after eight years, had given a good account of himself as an opener in both innings during the third Test. But at the nets today, Patel didn’t get much batting time.

The training pattern of the two suggests that Rahul is set to open the innings with Murali Vijay, while Patel would bat lower down the batting order. Regular wicketkeeper Wriddhiman, recuperating from a strain in his left thigh, won’t figure in the fourth Test too.

Injury worries

The prospects of Rahul’s comeback into the playing XI must have made Kumble happy. But the former India skipper wasn’t a pleased man, for injuries to India’s openers have become a cause of worry for him. Vijay picked up a thumb injury during the Antigua Test against West Indies, Shikhar Dhawan injured his thumb during the Kolkata Test against New Zealand, and Rahul has been suffering from recurring injuries. 

“Look, injuries are part and parcel of the game and it is not in our control,” Kumble said. “But I think there’s something happening with the openers in terms of injury. I hope that doesn’t go on and on. There has to be some stop at some stage. Ideally, we would want a settled opening pair.”

India haven’t had a settled opening partnership due to injuries since the West Indies tour in July-August. India have been forced to look for stop-gap arrangements, such as Gautam Gambhir and Patel, but the replacements always play under the threat of being dropped once the regular openers are fit. For instance, Gambhir had a disappointing outing in the Rajkot Test; coupled with Rahul’s good show in a Ranji Trophy game, it resulted in Gambhir’s sacking.

“For New Zealand, we had three different opening pairs. Even in the West Indies, we had an injury to Vijay and then Dhawan got injured against New Zealand,” Kumble added. “Then Gambhir had that freak injury in Indore but he could bat. It (injury) is something that we got to live with.”

‘Top fitness’

There have been other cases — Bhuvneshwar  Kumar picked up a back strain and regular wicketkeeper Saha suffered a thigh strain. Ishant Sharma had been laid low by a bout of chikungunya.

But Kumble believes that the “fitness parameters” of the current team are the best they have ever been. He also dismissed the notion — as expressed by former captain Dilip Vengsarkar — that excessive training in the gym was causing injuries to the players.

“The injuries that we had are hamstring injuries, which are very common not just in cricket but in any sport,” Kumble said. “We are keeping track of the workload, especially of the fast bowlers. We certainly keep track and if we feel that we need to pull back on players, we have done that in the past as well and we will continue to monitor.”

“I played in the ‘90s where fitness and strength conditioning was a personal choice and not a team choice. In the 2000s, the culture changed and you could see the difference. Now it is part and parcel of modern cricket,” he added.