Zaheer's fitness to be assessed

Zaheer Khan will definitely miss India's Asia Cup match against Bangladesh, and his participation in the remaining games will be assessed by the team management over the next couple of days. Speaking to the media, John Wright, India's coach, revealed that Zaheer tweaked his quadriceps muscle even before he had bowled a ball during Sunday's Asia Cup match against Sri Lanka at Dambulla. Zaheer bowled gingerly, at medium-pace, during the Sri Lankan innings, and came out to bat later in the evening with a runner.

"It happened while he was fielding, sprinting for a ball," said Wright. "Obviously, it affected his bowling."

Wright said that the physio, Andrew Leipus, was happy with the progress that Zaheer had made, but he indicated that the injury was a major worry for both the team and the player. "From our point of view, we want the situation sorted out because we want to be picking from a full squad," said Wright. "Zaheer was very upset about it. He has trained very hard but he is having these continual injury situations which are generally in the leg region.

From the team's point of view, and his, we have got to try and get on top of the situation because its tough on the player and we can't have it happening regularly."

Wright indicated that it wasn't a recurrence of the hamstring problems that had bedevilled Zaheer on the tours of Australia and Pakistan. "From what I understand, it was not exactly the same [as the injury he sustained before] because it was sustained while fielding and not bowling," he said. "He just got fit, bowled well in that first game and looked as good as I have seen him for 12 months - for it to recur while fielding is very unfortunate."