'Tendulkar has begun using light bat' - Gloster

John Gloster, the Indian team's physio, is confident that Sachin Tendulkar would return to international cricket as scheduled in September. Gloster said that Tendulkar, who is currently recovering from elbow surgery, had started to practice with a light bat and was making satisfactory progress.

"He is on course, there is little doubt," Gloster told Khaleej Times when asked about Tendulkar's path to full fitness. "I speak to him every day and we are constantly monitoring his progress, it is on schedule." Tendulkar isn't expected to be fit before India's tour to Zimbabwe, starting later this month, but Gloster was hoping he could return for Sri Lanka's series in India in October.

"The thing with tennis elbow is that if you keep treating it from outside, or from occasional injections, it would not go away in a hurry. But Sachin was operated upon in England which is the foolproof method of getting rid of tennis elbow. It takes away the weeds and wasted part of muscles and then over a period of time and structured process, the elbow would be back to normal."

Tendulkar has been dogged by tennis-elbow injury for nearly a year and it forced him to miss one-day tournaments in Holland and England apart from two Tests against Australia. After the home series against Pakistan last season, Tendulkar decided to get his elbow operated.