India’s woes on the disastrous tour of England worsened on Monday with reports that Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir may skip the limited-overs leg due to injuries.
Indian media covering the tour said the two frontline batsmen would return home after the Test series ends later on Monday with India struggling to avoid a 4-0 whitewash.
Sehwag has not yet recovered fully after undergoing shoulder surgery in May, which forced him to miss the tour of the West Indies and the first two Tests of the ongoing series, reports said.
The aggressive opener called for the physiotherapist while batting on Sunday, apparently to tend to a sore shoulder.
Gambhir suffered a mild concussion while fielding on Saturday and even though scans did not reveal a major injury, the left-hander was in discomfort while batting.
The NDTV news channel reported from London that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was expected to announce replacements for the duo later this week.
There has been no official comment from the BCCI on the report, which was also carried by several newspapers.
India were depleted by injuries to senior players such as Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar during the Test series, and England won the first three matches by huge margins.
In the process, Andrew Strauss’s home team dislodged India as the number one Test side in the official rankings.
The limited-overs leg of the tour starts with a Twenty20 international at Manchester on August 31, followed by five one-day matches between September 3 and 16.
If Sehwag and Gambhir are ruled out, India will be left with just six players from the team that won the World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai on April 2.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Munaf Patel and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth will be the only survivors from the champion team.
Zaheer, Harbhajan and Yuvraj have already been ruled out of the one-dayers.
