Confident India shrugs off the loss of Shewag

Only 12 members of the Indian squad joined the net session at the Nehru Stadium in Pune on the eve of the 2nd ODI against Australia. Skipper Sourav Ganguly could not make it as he was down with a slight stomach upset. Coach John Wright later confirmed that it was nothing serious and he will be ready for Wednesday's game.

Virender Shewag, who was the man of the match in Bangalore, has been forced out of the rest of this series following a multiple fracture of his thumb which he sustained in the field during the first ODI. Shewag will be out of action for almost two months and he has been replaced by Punjab left-hander Yuvraj Singh. After his all round performance in the first match (58 & 3/59), Shewag's loss would be severely felt.

Talking to reporters at a press conference earlier, the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said "Shewag's absence is a big blow but we have to take it in our stride and get on with the job." Commenting on the wicket, the Bengal southpaw predicted another run feast on the batsmen-friendly wicket. "Pune has always been good to batsmen and it should be no different this time. The team that bats better will win," he said.

After a tiring session at the nets, the Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid and the coach John Wright had a few things to say. Dravid declared that the team was very focussed, but not over-confident. He struck a note of caution, saying that nothing could be taken for granted since it was just the early part of a five match series. Dravid said the Indians were well aware that they are against a tough team which will be coming back hard at them. Asked about his opponent's strategy, Dravid quickly responded that the team was more concerned about their own batting, bowling and fielding.

Wright observed that the team has not yet decided on the replacement for Shewag but hinted that Dinesh Mongia or Robin Singh might step in for the Delhi allrounder. "We can't deplete our batting resources, we still have to maintain a balance" said Wright, who noted that the wicket promises to be another batting beauty. He added that the twelve would be decided later on Tuesday and the playing 11 on the morning of the match.

Meanwhile, Indian manager Chetan Chauhan said Yuvraj Singh will be able to join the team only before the third match in Indore on Saturday and thus was unavailable for selection tomorrow. Yuvraj is playing a day-night exhibition match in Dhaka on Tuesday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence. When asked about the bowling, he said that the team had several other options since Tendulkar did not bowl in Bangalore and Ganguly only came in for a short spell. Indeed Wright felt that Dinesh Mongia has worked hard on his bowling along with VVS Laxman and Hemang Badani and each of them could also contribute 3-9 overs if they put their mind to it.

The Australians who did not practise in the morning are expected to turn out for their net session in the evening and might be thinking of a few changes in the playing XI for Wednesday. The Australian captain Steve Waugh told AFP that Australia will continue its rotation policy to give all 15 players a chance, hinting that Andrew Symonds, Darren Lehmann, Shane Lee and Nathan Bracken will get a look-in soon. "Those guys who missed out could well play the next game," he said.

He also said that there was no move to drop in-form opener Matthew Hayden down the order. Hayden who has had a great tour so far including the 99 off 89 balls at Bangalore in the last ODI looks set to open for the rest of the tour. In reply to a question on reverting back to the highly successful opening pair of Gilchrist and Mark Waugh, the Aussie captain said "Matthew is playing so well we gave him the opportunity to open the batting and we'll probably reassess that after this series."

Teams (from):

India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Mongia, Robin Singh, Vijay Dahiya, Hemang Badani, Sunil Joshi, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar.

Australia: Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Ian Harvey, Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh, Matthew Hayden, Shane Lee.

Umpires: I Sivaram and RC Gupta. Third Umpire: C R Mohite