Sourav works out before D-Day

At his own academy here, Sourav spent two and-a-half hours in a knock about. He leaves for Mumbai tomorrow for the ’fitness test’.

Tennis elbow or not, this knock about was probably a signal to the selectors that the Bengal Tiger was down but surely not out yet.

The Board’s medical team will inspect the elbow injury and make pronouncements that will be vital for the deposed skipper’s survival. He is now East Zone skipper, and is set to play his first match in Rajkot, versus North.

The left-hander took guard, this overcast afternoon at the state-of-the-art academy he recently inaugurated, and brandished the bat against Jharkhand quickie SS Rao and Bengal tweakers Sourasish Lahiri and Murtaza Lodhgar. Sourav batted for a half-hour stretch at first, cautiously.

Soon, though, he opened up. Then he ventured into a bit of bowling as well, with his gentle medium pacers.

A source in Sourav’s family told The Indian Express that the player is anxious about the recovery effort. “Sourav insists there is no pain at all right now. Whatever little niggling pain was there, is now gone. But he is really worried now over the fact that whether the right arm will be able to take the strain, since he didn’t apply any strain at all for a few weeks. Sourav didn’t even lift the tea cup with the right hand.”

The players who practised with Ganguly today recalled that he was watchful start with, but was really worked up and played shots all round the wicket. “Dada was his usual self. He was focussed, yet very active throughout. He gave us instructions to bowl to him and we rotated the bowling among the three of us. He was natural, spoke little and was all worked up,” recounted lanky left-arm offie Lahiri.