How much ready are Indian players for WC T20- Zaheer, Sehwag, Gambhir....?

[Chandan]

These are the news in today's press: Zaheer on road to recovery, decision only on Thursday Posted: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 0014 hrs IST Mumbai: The final call on Zaheer Khan’s fitness will be taken only on Thursday, a day before India’s World T20 Cup squad fly out to defend their title. India’s pace spearhead injured his bowling shoulder during the Indian Premier League and is presently in South Africa undergoing rehabilitation. National team physio Nitin Patel, who also happens to be a member of the support staff for Zaheer’s IPL team Mumbai Indians, will be submitting a report on the pacer to BCCI secretary N Srinivasan on Thursday. Even as speculations about Zaheer missing the trip to England surfaced on Tuesday, those in the know say that the pacer is well on the path of recovery. “If not on Friday, he might join the team later in England. He is on the path of recovery,†said a BCCI official. It is also learnt that Zaheer has already started bowling in South Africa but isn’t quite going full throttle. The national selectors too have opted for a wait-and-watch approach and aren’t willing to speak about India’s pace bowling department. “Zaheer will be an asset for any team and we would certainly be keen to have him for the World Cup. But we have other options too in case he doesn’t recover in time,†one of the selectors said. Besides Zaheer, other pacers in the squad are Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Rudra Pratap Singh, and Irfan Pathan. With RP, along with Praveen and Irfan, among wickets during the IPL, the Indian team has a formidable pace attack. Incidentally, two years back when India won the inaugural title in South Africa, Zaheer was at home nursing an injury. In case the pacer fails to regain fitness in the coming days, the national selectors will be looking at Munaf Patel as possible replacement. However, there are those who believe that Delhi pacer Ashish Nehra, who just missed the purple cap, might be the dark horse. Another one: Zaheer fitness issue Calcutta: The national selectors haven’t been told by the BCCI to pick a replacement for Zaheer Khan. Till late on Tuesday, it is therefore assumed that the pacer is fit for the World T20 in England. Zaheer didn’t play for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL after May 3. A shoulder injury suffered during one of the matches in the tournament kept him on the sidelines. Zaheer apart, the Team India XV has four new-ball bowlers — Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar. The Indian squad, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is set to depart for England on Friday to defend their title in the World T20 Championship commencing on June 5. However, if Zaheer has to be replaced, it will be a toss-up between Laxmipathy Balaji and Munaf Patel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wonder what can one make from these news! But even if Zaheer fails to recover, I don't think it'll be a that costly for India. Zaheer's performance was not very exciting in the IPL and he is one bowler who needs to have plenty of match practice under his belt to be in good rhythm. So I hope they don't send him at all with the T20 squad.

[Desi Cartman]

Struck in curfew, Bhajji flies out of Jalandhar by helicopter Star India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who came for a short visit to his residence here, was struck in the curfew that erupted after the murder of a religious Sikh guru in Vienna, Austria and had to fly to Chandigarh by a helicopter for his further journey to Mumbai. "I came to visit my family on May 23 and as I have to attend an urgent meeting with Nita Ambani, owner of the Mumbai Indians team tomorrow at Mumbai, Reliance company arranged a helicopter for me and I flew to Chandigarh to take my further flight to Mumbai," Harbhajan told PTI. Harbhajan boarded the helicopter from PAP Ground at about 7.30 AM, where a special helipad was made by the District Administration, sources said. "Even my brother-in-law was struck in the violence on May 23 and had to spend the whole night in a nearby hospital along with his family," the off-spinner added. Terming the Vienna incident as "very unfortunate", Harbhajan appealed to the residents of Punjab to restore peace and harmony. "It is time for all Punjabis to show patience and be united for restoring peace in the state," he said. Harbhajan said on Wednesday he would fly to England with the Indian team to participate in the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup, scheduled to begin on June 5. Asked about India's prospects of defending the title in the biennial event, Harbhajan said, "In the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), Indian players performed very well and the team selected for T20 World Cup is excellent and will be a serious challenge to any side of the world." "I hope Indian team will repeat its performance and become the T20 World Champion again," he said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So district administration had enough time during riots to build this helipad :hmmm:

[King]

Geez..... a trip from Punjab to Mumbai by a private aircraft for a meeting. That's bloody awesome. MI seems the most luxurious team around.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Wait.......WTF happened?Curfew in Punjab?

[gaurav92]

thursdayt will decide whether zak will be baack or nott...so till then munaf,nehra,sreesanth may just cannot take their eyes off the fitness test i think if zak's not well give nehra a chance after all he has looked threatening in IPL...but only let him play matches against minnows....he may get hammered otherwise.. but i hope zak gets well soon.

[Lord]

Wait.......WTF happened?Curfew in Punjab?

yes,dont u know ,situaton is tense here http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=157545

[Feed]

Zaheer to travel with team to England As the India team departs on Friday to defend its World T20 title in England, all eyes will be on pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who missed a major part of the Mumbai Indians’ IPL campaign due to a shoulder injury, reports G Krishnan. More... As the India team departs on Friday to defend its World T20 title in England, all eyes will be on pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who missed a major part of the Mumbai Indians’ IPL campaign due to a shoulder injury. Zaheer played the first six matches before missing the remainder of the tournament after injuring his shoulder against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 3. HT has learnt that Zaheer will be travelling with the team and is expected to start bowling from June 2. This puts to rest speculation whether a replacement would be sought. Sources in the Mumbai Indians said the injury was not serious. “He required rest and needed to rebuild his muscles with exercise,” said a source. Following the injury, team physio, Nitin Patel closely monitored Zaheer. The 30-year-old fast bowler would have got more than a month’s rest before he would be required to bowl when India begin their title defence against Bangladesh on June 6 at Nottingham. Incidentally, Patel has submitted his report on Zaheer's fitness to Board secretary, N Srinivasan, who could not be reached for his comments.

[Xfactor]

Hope Zaheer gets fit in time for at least the second part of the tournament. We will need him for sure..

[Xfactor]

This is good news. I hope, however, that they dont rush him into playing each and every match early on..

[vvvslaxman]

I hope Sehwag gets back his form against his favorite whipping boys on Jun 3rd.

[suraj]

I hope Sehwag gets back his form against his favorite whipping boys on Jun 3rd.

we all hope so Am i the only one who thinks that as long as Sehwag does not model himself after Afridi he has the potential to be a legend any time of the day???

[vvvslaxman]

we all hope so Am i the only one who thinks that as long as Sehwag does not model himself after Afridi he has the potential to be a legend any time of the day???

Sehwag modelled himself on Tendulkar. So he is safe. He tightened his technique on his return in 2007. But he picked up his bad habits again in NZ. Hope it is just a phase. Harbhajan is comfortably better than Hafridi at this point.

[Lord]

we all hope so Am i the only one who thinks that as long as Sehwag does not model himself after Afridi he has the potential to be a legend any time of the day???

Hes already a legend IMO

[suraj]

Hes already a legend IMO

Not if he models himself after Afridi in the senior phase of his career

[Lord]

Not if he models himself after Afridi in the senior phase of his career

who would be stupid to model himself on Afridi?Sehwag is not an idiot,even if he tries he cant reach the high levels of idiocy achieved by the beast

[suraj]

who would be stupid to model himself on Afridi?Sehwag is not an idiot' date='[b']even if he tries he cant reach the high levels of idiocy achieved by the beast

agreed:--D:--D but at times he seems to be trying really really hard

[cowboysfan]

http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket/storypage/ndtv/id/spoen20090095157/Zaheer_not_fully_fit_Dhoni.html Zaheer not fully fit: Dhoni Clearing the haze over Zaheer Khan's availability for the World T20 Championships, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday disclosed the pace spearhead had not fully recovered but was expected to be fit for the opening match against Bangladesh. "Zaheer Khan is not one hundred per cent fit, but we hope he would be fit by the time of our first match (on June 6 at Trent Bridge)," Dhoni said in his pre-departure media conference. "We are hoping he would get fit by the 2nd or 3rd (of June)," he added. Doubts had cropped up about Zaheer's availability for the World Championship when he stayed back in South Africa even after the conclusion of IPL for a treatment to his injury. Zaheer, who played for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, suffered the injury on his bowling shoulder while diving to stop a drive off Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Robin Uthappa in Johannesburg. He underwent a scan that indicated some inflammation and the team management said the injury was not as serious as was thought before the scan. But he did not take part in the remaining matches of Mumbai Indians

[Feed]

Injured Zaheer and Sehwag to miss warm-ups "Zaheer is going to miss the warm-ups and we are hoping he will be fit for the first game," Dhoni said during the captains' media conference at Lord's More... Injured Zaheer to miss warm-ups Nagraj Gollapudi May 31, 2009 Virender Sehwag too is down with a shoulder injury and he may miss India's opening warm-up game on Monday against New Zealand The biggest challenge for defending champions India at the World Twenty20 is maintaining the fitness of their players. For the moment India are sweating on the fitness of Zaheer Khan, their strike bowler, who is yet to recover completely from the injury to his bowling arm, picked mid-way into the IPL recently. Indian captain MS Dhoni said Zaheer will not be seen in the two warm-up games in the lead-up to the main event, which starts on June 5. A day later, India play their opening game against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge. "Zaheer is going to miss the warm-ups and we are hoping he will be fit for the first game," Dhoni said during the captains' media conference at Lord's. In another likely setback, Virender Sehwag is recovering from a shoulder injury he picked after the IPL. Team sources revealed to Cricinfo that Sehwag, too, will miss tomorrow's practice match against New Zealand at Lord's. "Keeping every player fit and maintaining their fitness is going to be our challenge," a senior member from the team management said. India arrived on Friday evening and have already had two optional net sessions. On Saturday, Harbhajan Singh was the only one missing while today, Zaheer, Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma decided to opt out. Despite the injury concerns, Dhoni is still quietly confident about India defending the crown, which they won in a fairytale fashion in 2007 after being the last to embrace the Twenty20 format. It was also Dhoni's first captaincy stint. He has pleasant memories, no doubt, but is not getting carried away this time. Though the majority of his players were in prime form in the recently concluded IPL in South Africa, Dhoni is still wary of the dangers of complacency and injury in the fast-paced Twenty20 environment. He is also not getting bogged down by the pressure of defending the crown. "We are not thinking about the results," he said. "We have just come into the tournament and will take on one team at a time. This will help us rather than thinking what we will look like at the end of the tournament." India have played five games after their 2007 triumph, winning two and losing three - the last two ending in defeats to New Zealand. Dhoni is unperturbed about the twin losses though. "By the second game, we had got the hang of the local conditions and it ended in a close finish, customary in Twenty20. But now, we are fresh from IPL." During the IPL, Gary Kirsten, the India coach, had told Cricinfo that mental fatigue could affect the Indians, a view echoed by both Sachin Tendulkar and Dilip Vengsarkar recently. But Dhoni disagreed, saying the players are now used to the itinerant lifestyle. "Personally I don't think it hampers us too much because we are used to it. We play throughout the year. If you look at the plus point, we are the most experienced side when it comes to the Twenty20 format. "In the last three years there have been less changes in the side, so we gel well as a team. Almost each individual has played around 80 to 90 games and they come up with ideas. If you have 50 ideas you can pick and choose. We have made loads of difference but we have to keep improving." Dhoni added that the highlight of India's campaign in 2007 was the positive attitude which helped script the improbable after the first game was washed out. "From then on we were in a do-or-die situation. I think the aggression we showed was particularly important and we backed each other very well. Hopefully it will work for us this time also."

[crimemastergogo]

i think we should replace sehwag with a bowler, our top7 is pretty much set if all the players are fit, there is still some uncertainty regarding bowling...so the team i would like for the warm up (ignoring batting order) 1.Gambhir 2.Raina 3.Yuvraj 4.Rohit 5.Yusuf 6.Dhoni 7.Irfan 8.Praveen 9.Ojha 10.Bhajji 11. RP I don't think it si worth bothering with Jadeja and Ishant at this point, Ishant is not in the top 4 fast bowlers when it comes to T20, and Jadeja is (at this point) not a good enough batsman or bowler to force his way into the team batting is a little thin but irfan at no.7 is not bad, and both bhajji and pk can bat

[vvvslaxman]

Why is even Zaheer there with this fitness. It is a bish-bash cricket where anyone can go for runs including Zak. Why risk him if he cannot regain top fitness