By IANS
Bangalore : A hamstring strain suffered during the Twenty20 World Championships has made Australian captain Ricky Ponting a doubtful starter for the first one-dayer against India here Saturday.
“I will do some training tomorrow and hope for the best. I am not ruled out for the first game yet,” said Pointing Thursday.
The Australian captain skipped the net session but had a few laps of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He is yet to pass the fitness test to play Saturday.
Ponting had suffered an injury while batting against Pakistan in a Super Eights match of the recently concluded Twenty20 World Championship. He was then ruled out of the rest of the tournament.
“We have a few injury problems and some niggles bothering us but hopefully everything would clear up by the time of the second game. We are hoping to win the series and want to start on a winning note in the first match,” Ponting said.
Brad Hodge and Brad Hiddin are also suffering from niggling hamstring soreness while fast bowler Nathan Bracken would join the team later as he has gone to Australia for his first child’s birth.
“The soft ground conditions and more travelling and flying than other teams caused serious problem for us. We are feeling the heat of two guys suffering from hamstring injuries,” he said.