Tendulkar troubled by hamstring strain, skips nets

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, troubled with a hamstring strain, skipped the nets as the rest of the Indian team worked out at the Harare Sports club on Wednesday.

"I stretched the hamstring when I was chasing the second last ball of the Harare Test," Tendulkar said.

Besides Tendulkar, left arm seam bowler Ashish Nehra too stayed out of the morning practice session owing to a muscle pull on his right thigh.

However, manager Chetan Chauhan said both Tendulkar and Nehra should be fit for the upcoming triangular one-day tournament.

After missing a golden chance to record a rare series win abroad, the Indians now look to make amends by winning the one-day series which has West Indies as the third team.

The team will play a practice game against Zimbabwe A at the Sunrise Sports Club in Harare on Friday ahead of their opening match against Zimbabwe here on Sunday.

The one-day specialists Virendra Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Sodhi and Harvinder Singh, who joined the team on Tuesday, went flat out in the practice session.

Fast bowler Harvinder Singh impressed with his control and movement at the nets, repeatedly beating batsmen with his bounce and pace with the white ball.

Debasish Mohanty too appeared keen to book a one-day slot for himself and bowled impressively.

The nets were used to simulate a match situation with batsmen batting at both ends. And to get the team members into the limited overs mould, coach John Wright insisted that the players go for singles whenever they played a shot.

Meanwhile, coloured clothing with the new sponsor's logo on it arrived this afternoon. Chauhan was concerned with the shortage of warm clothing and wanted to ensure there are enough pull-overs with peak winter just setting in.

The four members of the Test squad, Shiv Sunder Das, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Javagal Srinath and Sairaj Bahutule left for home this morning.