Fittingly unfit

The Indian injury list at the moment is long. And this, after a year in which coach Greg Chappell and his assistant Ian Frazer had declared that fitness was the most important thing on their agenda.

8220;Most of them have been fitness injuries. One can understand if the player has been hit by the ball or may have been hurt while fielding. But these injuries are more either because of continuous cricket or too much strain,8217;8217; says a senior selector.

On their return from South Africa the Board wanted all players to go through mandatory fitness tests. Looking at the ongoing camp here, nothing of the sort appears to be happening now.

But the players have stuck to the basics in the last two days, indicating that the team management is focusing on giving the players enough chance to recover from stress.

Tendulkar suffered from injury scares in South Africa while Dravid, easily the fittest among team members, was out of the last two one-dayers because of a finger injury. During the Tests, the team was forced to rely on the likes of VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel, when it came to fielding. 8220;Looking at the team then, this was certainly one area of concern,8217;8217; says the selector.

At the moment, Patel8217;s injury has created a chink in the Indian attack armour. If anybody among Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth and Ajit Agarkar becomes another victim of fitness injury, it will be a irrecoverable situation.

With Yuvraj Singh still recovering and Virender Sehwag dropped from the side, the availability of a fifth bowler who can also bat, remains a concern.

Just looking at Ramesh Powar on the field can raise an alarm. Dravid talks about Powar8217;s ability to bowl as 8220;with good flight and guile8217;8217; in the most hateful conditions. He also talks about the Mumbai bowler fitting into the shoes of Anil Kumble some day. But excessive flab on Powar restricts him from moving easily on the field.

The only ones who look capable of being agile enough on the field, at present, are Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh. While Yuvraj is still attempting his comeback, Kaif has been dropped in the series and Raina8217;s place could be on the edge.

This is certainly not the team Chappell had in mind for his Vision 2007 and the message, therefore, should be all the more clear: 8216;Shape up or ship out.8217;

List of injured players since November 2005 until now

8226; Ashish Nehra forced out because of back injury during the tour of Zimbabwe

8226; Laxmipathy Balaji out after the tour of Sri Lanka last year because of abdominal injury

8226; Sachin Tendulkar out due to shoulder injury

8226; Virender Sehwag suffered back spasms until the ODIs began. Earlier, in Pakistan, he was on drip because of food poisoning during the match at Faisalabad

8226; Before the Test against England in Nagpur, Sehwag also had a strained right shoulder

8226; Harbhajan Singh suffered from finger injury during the ODIs in Pakistan

8226; Yuvraj Singh suffered hamstring injury before the first Test against England at Nagpur

8226; Munaf Patel suffered toe injury before his his ankle injury

8226; Irfan Pathan gave a scare before Faridabad one-dayer, citing sore throat

8226;n Mohd Kaif suffered a hamstring injury before the first one-dayer against Sri Lanka in October

8226; Zaheer Khan suffered a hamstring injury during the Tests in Pakistan

8226; Anil Kumble suffered shoulder injury while playing for his county in England last year

8226; Yuvraj Singh had a ligament tear in the knee while playing kho-kho during ICC Champions Trophy

8226; Sachin Tendulkar suffered groin and hamstring injuries but played during tour of South Africa

8226; Rahul Dravid suffered a finger injury during last two one-dayers in South Africa

8226; VVS Laxman returned with a hamstring scare from South Africa and was clearly uncomfortable in his Ranji Trophy matches

8226; Munaf Patel out with ankle injury

8226; Ajit Agarkar suffered a groin injury after coming back from South Africa