India Australia Series

Sehwag, Gambhir in injury scare ahead of Test series

In an injury scare, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir was on Sunday rushed to a local hospital here after being hit on his right wrist by a delivery during Board President XI’s game against Australia only to be discharged later without any problem.

At nearby PCA Stadium at Mohali, which is to host India’s first Test against Australia from October 1, Gambhir’s opening partner Virender Sehwag was hit on his knee by an Ishant Sharma delivery.

The two incidents relating to the Indian cricket team members just days before the Mohali Test caused a minor scare, but things ended on a happy note.

First one happened inside Sector 16 cricket stadium, where Australia is playing a three-day warm up game against the Board President’s XI. Leading the BP XI side, Gambhir, who is making a comeback after an injury, got out to a rising delivery from Australian speedster Ben Hilfenhaus. The ball hit him near the right hand wrist area making him shake his hand for a while before returning to the pavilion.

There was another scare when some Indian Test players, who reached here on Sunday, did some practice at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium at Mohali.

A delivery bowled by speedster Ishant hit Sehwag on his right knee and he was immediately taken off and given medical assistance. Sehwag later played down the incident. When asked after the net session if he was injured, Sehwag gave a wide smile and said “What knee”.

The players, including Sachin Tendulkar, had an exhaustive three-hour practice session at the nets at the PCA stadium ahead of the first Test of the two-match series against Australia starting there from October 1. Tendulkar, Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra sweated it out at the nets as coach Gary Kirsten kept a watchful eye.