http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24562353-23212,00.html?from=public_rssRicky battles through pain barrierBy Malcolm Conn in New Delhi, India
October 28, 2008
AUSTRALIA's injury woes continue to mount, with captain Ricky Ponting requiring a cortisone injection in his troublesome right wrist during the second Test in Mohali, which Australia lost badly last week.
While not in any danger of missing the third Test, beginning in New Delhi on Wednesday, Ponting is having ongoing problems following surgery in July.
However the captain's major concern is fast bowler Stuart Clark, who continues to train strongly after missing the second Test with an elbow injury.
Ponting is confident Clark will be fit but the Australian hierarchy will wait and see how he wakes up on Tuesday after three days of bowling.
"We expect him to be available for selection but he will be reassessed in the morning," team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said.
Ponting is also under no illusions about what sort of a pitch the Australians can expect at the Feroz Shah Kolta Stadium, where India have won their past seven Tests in a row and not lost for 21 years.
There were four groundsmen with wire brushes meticulously scrubbing every blade of grass off the pitch yesterday while the Australians trained on a day of particularly bad pollution.
"I'm pretty sure I know what we're going to get," Ponting said of the pitch. "They might play three spinners in this game."
India must fit captain Anil Kumble back into the team if, as expected, he recovers from a shoulder injury that kept him out of the second Test, allowing leg-spinner Amit Mishra to take seven wickets on debut.
Australia are likely to make just one change, bringing back Stuart Clark to replace debutant fast bowler Peter Siddle.
Australia have had a dreadful run of injuries on this tour, with leg-spinner Bryce McGain (shoulder) and opening batsman Phil Jaques (back) being forced home without playing a match.
McGain's replacement, his Victorian captain Cameron White, walked virtually straight off a plane and into the first Test in Bangalore while Shaun Marsh has only just arrived here as cover for Jaques.
Ponting often bats with his right wrist bandaged and was examined again at training on Sunday by Kountouris, who is giving Ponting almost daily treatment.
"It hasn't been great for the whole trip but I've got what I've got," Ponting said.
"I'm having treatment almost daily and I had another cortisone injection on the fourth night of the last Test. It's almost a week since then so it was expected to settle down quite a bit but I've still got a bit of discomfort.
"I'm trying things all the time.
"I didn't bat with painkillers on Sunday but have to during most sessions."
Despite the injury and a poor second Test Ponting believes he is batting well.
"After a few days off I feel really good about my batting," he said.
"It's as well as I've moved and as well as I've hit the ball for a long time. It (the injury) is affecting me a little bit but people watching me bat wouldn't notice anything. It's not hindering strokeplay, it's just annoying."
Ponting was sent home from the one-day series in the West Indies in late June with an injury which turned out to be worse than first thought.
The Australia captain was forced to undergo surgery in Melbourne in early July to repair tissue and tendon damage, forcing him to miss the short one-day series against Bangladesh in Darwin during late August and early September.
Ponting damaged the tendon while batting in the second one-day international in Grenada, then played through the pain to post 69 in the following match two days later. However he struggled to train and was flown home before Australia's fourth one-dayer in St Kitts, and was reviewed by wrist specialist Greg Hoy in Melbourne.
"Ricky has sustained a tendon injury that requires repair of tissues that hold the tendon in place," Cricket Australia's medical officer, Trefor James, said at the time.
AuthorTopic: India x Australia - Third Test - New Delhi (Read 5175 times)
January 28, 2008, 11:38:29 AM