|
Ganguly counting on Reid magic
 Trent Bridge, Aug 31: Indian captain Sourav Ganguly hopes the second training stint with former Australian seamer Bruce Reid would help his young bunch of fast bowlers click together as a unit.
"We are not bowling well as a team. Someday one or two bowl well and others don't, and on other days, it is someone else who is bowling well and not the others," Ganguly said on the sidelines of team's practice session here yesterday.
Reid, who had assisted the Indians on their tour of Australia last season, joined the team yesterday and would be working with them tomorrow also.
He would rejoin them for a brief during the ICC Champions Trophy between India's two group matches against Kenya and Pakistan on Sep 11 and 19 respectively.
 No sooner than he arrived, Reid turned his attention to the two young pacers Laxmipathy Balaji and Irfan Pathan and asked them to bowl in a certain manner.
For Irfan, he also put three pegs in his follow through to ensure he doesn't run on to the pitch. Reid initially restricted himself to teach the two youngsters the nuances of fast bowling before summoning the two other fast bowlers of the squad - Ajit Agarkar and Ashish Nehra.
Agarkar had yesterday passed a fitness test and was available for selection after the side strain he suffered in the first match of the triseries against Pakistan in Holland.
It was a hectic day for the Indians after the many long rainy days spent inside the hotel rooms in Amsterdam. The players enjoyed the bright sunshine and were perked up by the sight of Sachin Tendulkar bowling his leg-breaks to his mates.
 Tendulkar, who has been ruled out of the three-match series against England with a tennis elbow, hates being kept out of action and bowled his leg-spins for long stretches to the frontline bowlers.
The team management indicated that the decision to not play Tendulkar in the NatWest Challenge was more of a precautionary measure and there was no serious trouble with the Mumbai star.
The team was pretty hopeful the little master would be available for selection for the all-important Champions Trophy which begins on September 10.
It was also learnt that the Indian team management had asked for a 16th player as replacement for Tendulkar but the Indian Board turned down the request.
The Board was of the view that the team already had adequate backup in Rohan Gavaskar and young wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik. (Agencies)
The
squad
Published: Wednesday, September
1, 2004
|
