Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar has been ruled out of the rest of the one-day series against England because of a toe injury, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) said on Monday. “He has been advised rest for four weeks. The All-India Senior Selection Committee has chosen Subramaniam Badrinath to replace him,” BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement.
Badrinath, who turned 31 last week, got a belated birthday gift after Tendulkar became the eighth member of the squad to be forced out of the tour through injury. Tendulkar missed the first one-dayer at Durham with a swollen toe, ensuring he would not make his eagerly-awaited 100th international century on the tour of England. Tendulkar, 38, has made 99 centuries in international cricket, 51 in tests and 48 in one-dayers. Having scored 274 for seven and reducing England to 27 for two at Durham, India looked on course to beat their hosts for the first time on the tour but the match was abandoned due to rain. Middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma fractured his right index finger during the match and was ruled out of the series, with Manoj Tiwary called up as his replacement. Sharma followed Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh who have already returned home with injuries. The 50-over world champions arrived as the top-ranked test team but were knocked off their perch as England swept the series 4-0. The second one-dayer is at the Rose Bowl, Hampshire on Tuesday.
Bell happy to move up the order: Ian Bell is relishing his opportunity to move up the England batting order against India in Kevin Pietersen’s absence. The talented Warwickshire batsman stepped up from number five to deputise at three for the injured Jonathan Trott in the last two npower Tests and has been asked to operate at number four in the one-day series, with Pietersen rested. The 29-year-old has filled a number of roles in England’s limited-overs set-up in recent years, and is happy to continue doing so. “It’s nice to have the opportunity to bat up the order,” he was quoted as saying. “I see myself being flexible in the one-day side, whether it’s opening or batting at four or six I have to adapt and it’s a strength of my game that I can do that.
“It’s a good indication of the strength of the squad that somebody like KP can be rested and we still have an order to compete with the best teams in the world. The longer we can have that, the better.” And Bell believes competition for places will only increase in the coming years. “A lot of guys are excited about where English cricket is going,” he continued.
“I was watching Twenty20 finals day and there was some great cricket there. It shows the depth in domestic cricket, there are players there who could easily represent England tomorrow. “You have to keep performing when you’re lucky enough to be in the starting XI because there are players knocking on the door. We’ve known that in Test cricket for a while and it’s the same in one-day and Twenty20 cricket.” “The squad is getting stronger all the time and we’re intent on becoming a very strong one-day side. We’ve got a while to the World Cup but we’ve got to take our one-day cricket seriously.”
