da luck： The Indian touring team get into the one-day groove, ahead of theupcoming triangular series, with a practice game against Zimbabwe A atthe Sunrise Club in Harare on Friday
21-Jun-2001The Indian touring team get into the one-day groove, ahead of theupcoming triangular series, with a practice game against Zimbabwe A atthe Sunrise Club in Harare on Friday.India’s one-day specialists Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Dinesh MongiaVirender Sehwag and Harvinder Singh, who joined the rest of the sideon Wednesday, would use this opportunity to stake a claim for a berthin the one-day squad.The match would also help the Indian batsmen, who disappointed bytheir poor performance in the second and final Test at Harare, gainconfidence on the fast and bouncy pitches here.The Indians would be relieved somewhat by the news that Andrew Flowerhas been ruled out of the entire triangular series with a broken rightthumb. He was hurt while collecting the first ball Andy Blignaut sentdown on the fourth morning of the second Test which Indian captainSourav Ganguly let go outside the off-stump.Flower’s absence will rob the series of much glamour since it wasexpected that he, along with Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara wouldprovide a three-way contest for batting honours in the series.In the absence of the gifted wicketkeeper-batsman, Tatind Taibu is setto make his international debut for Zimbabwe and he should have auseful practice game against the visitors.Paul Strang, the leg-spinner and utility batsman, is in the Zimbabwe Ateam for Friday’s game and after being ignored for the Test series,will be keen to make an impression on the selectors. Also in thereckoning would be Bryan Strang, a left-arm medium-pacer.The Indians, meanwhile, had a practice session and a work-out in thegym today.Ganguly left with Sodhi and team’s physio Andrew Leipus for the CFXAcademy ground early this morning for the nets. The rest of the teamfollowed them along with coach John Wright two hours later and thesquad had practice right in the middle of the ground, on the wicketsat the square.Tendulkar, who is taking it easy and does not want to strain hishamstring, had a few knocks in the middle.Seamer Ashish Nehra, who has a thigh strain, kept doing specificexercises as prescribed by physio Andrew Leipus. Nehra has a crick inthe neck, Leipus said, but there is little danger of him missing anymatches in the one-day series.The teams:Zimbabwe A: Paul Strang, Gary Brent, Hamilton Masakdza, StuartMatekendra, David Mutendera, Gavin Rennie, Barney Rogers, BryanStrang, Tatiend Taibu, Dirk Viljoen and Craig Wishart.Indians (from): Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, RahulDravid, Virendra Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, SameerDighe, Ashish Nehra, Harvinder Singh and Zaheer Khan.