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Dhoni bowls, Zaheer sits, Lord’s stumped

By Sandeep Dwivedi
Updated Saturday, 23 July 2011 12:07:58 - IST (UTC +5:30)

London : As Zaheer Khan sat sipping tea on the Lord’s balcony while his team mates warmed up before the start of play on Day Two of the first Test, the intrigue over the thigh strain that India’s pace spearhead had suffered on Thursday was multiplying by the minute. The team management’s injury update on email read: “unavailable to bowl in the first innings but is likely to be fit to bowl in the second”. It was far too open-ended to clear any doubts.
Sunil Gavaskar’s second-hand information on BBC Radio’s Test Match Special was less cryptic. “Wasim Akram had bumped into Zaheer at the team hotel this morning and he told me that the thigh had become tight. There is some kind of ‘knot’ due to strain,” he said on-air.
Former England captain Tony Greig couldn’t help but take a dig at the situation as he wrote on twitter: “What is ZK doing smiling, he should be on the table.” The furniture mentioned in the tweet was the one on which the physio usually treats the injured.
The Zaheer-less Indians looked listless in the first session. The jam-packed Lord ‘s crowd wasn’t quite getting to witness the action they had anticipated. And suddenly, India didn’t seem to be the World No.1 team they are, nor was the game proving to be a battle between the two best cricketing sides on form at present. The 2000th Test was proving to be a damp squib. The legends of the game, who had gathered for the big occasion, weren’t too pleased with the quality dished out.
After lunch, the proceedings took a bizarre turn. It started with Dhoni walking out without his wicket-keeping pads and Rahul Dravid taking his position behind the stumps. The Indian skipper started the session with his seam-ups and even had Kevin Pietersen almost edging into the mittens of the keeper.
With the new ball due in a few overs, Dhoni wanted to keep his pacers fresh. But why he didn’t try the part-time spin of Suresh Raina will forever remain a mystery. There were a few other puzzling decisions by the team management. Replacing Zaheer on the field was part-time wicketkeeper Wridhimaan Saha, even as close-in fielding specialist Yuvraj Singh sat in the dressing room.
Zaheer’s absence had certainly rattled the Indians and there were a few chuckles going around the ground at the cost of the visitors. As the injured pacer walked along the boundary ropes towards the MCC Club to train, David Lloyd, former England coach and now a commentator, claimed inside a broadcasting studio that Zaheer could even go to the bar next door. “There is sharbet, there is gin, rum...”.
At Lord’s, though, the joke is on India. (IE)

Tags: Sandeep Dwivedi India v/s England, ist Test, day 2, Dhoni, Zaheer

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