India summon bowling cover

India have called up medium-pace bowlers Rakesh Patel, Ishant Sharma and Ranadeb Bose for the one-day series against South Africa which starts today in Belfast as several members of the squad have a viral infection.

“Ajit Agarkar, (Shanthakumaran) Sreesanth and (Mahendra) Dhoni are still to recover fully,” board secretary Niranjan Shah said in a statement yesterday.

“As a precautionary measure the team management…has requested Rakesh Patel of Baroda, who is currently playing league cricket in England, reach Northern Ireland tomorrow.”

Uncapped Patel, 28, is a consistent performer in domestic cricket.

“The board is also making arrangements for Ishant Sharma and Ranadeb Bose to join the team within the next two days,” added Shah. Sharma and Bose are part of the test squad for next month’s tour of England.

India captain Rahul Dravid told reporters at Stormont that wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the first to fall ill, fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, medium-pacer Agit Agarkar, off-spinner Ramesh Powar and left-arm quick Rudra Pratap Singh were all suffering from viral fever and flu.

Dravid added he too was feeling unwell as were batsman Yuvraj Singh and left-arm pace bowler Zaheer Khan.

“Quite a few boys in our team are suffering from viral fever and flu,” and symptoms of that kind,” Dravid explained. “Sreesanth, Agit Agarkar, Dhoni, RP Singh and Ramesh Powar have not come to practice today (Monday).

“There are other guys like Yuvraj Singh, myself, Zaheer Khan and Robin (Singh, the fielding coach) who are feeling a bit down.”

“It’s not an ideal situation for us to be in,” said Dravid. ”There’s not much we can do about it. Hopefully we can get 11 guys fit on the park and play a good game of cricket.”

Experienced batsman Dravid added some thought had been given to moving today’s match to Wednesday but said such an idea was ultimately impractical.

“We did look at that option but obviously there are a lot of things that go into organising a one-day game.

And Dravid added the current situation opened up possibilities for inexperienced players such as teenage leg-spinner Piyush Chawla to take a leading role. “It’s a good opportunity for some of these young guys, to test themselves against good opposition in conditions they are not really used to.”

London-based Nitin Patel will provide cover for injured India physiotherapist John Gloster who tripped over a boundary rope at Stormont last Friday and broke his hand.

India and South Africa are set to complete their series on Sunday.

After that series, India play arch-rivals Pakistan in a one-day international in Glasgow on July 3.

They then face England in three Tests and seven one-dayers from July 19-September 8.
India opened their tour with a nine wicket win in a one-day international against Ireland at Stormont on Saturday where specialist keeper Dinesh Karthik, in the original one-day squad, played instead of Dhoni.