Injured Zaheer to miss warm-up games by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:	MS Dhoni, Z Khan
Event:	ICC World Twenty20 2009

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DateLine: 1st June 2009

 

One of the major challlenges to India's defence of the T20 WC crown would be the fitness of the players. Many are struggling and currently the biggest concern are the injuries to strike bowler Zaheer Khan, who is yet to recever from an injury to his bowling arm, and opening batsman Virender Sehwag, who picked up a shoulder injury midway through the IPL. Zaheer will not take any part in the two warm-up games leading to the main event.

 

"Zaheer is going to miss the warm-ups and we are hoping he will be fit for the first game," said skipper Dhoni during the captains' media conference at Lord's.

 

India reached England on Friday evening and the team has already had two optional nets. On Saturday, Harbhajan Singh was the only one missing while on Sunday, Zaheer, Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma decided to opt out.

 

Despite the injury concerns, Dhoni is still confident about India defending the coveted crown, which they won in an emphatic and fairytale fashion in 2007. It was then also Dhoni's first captaincy stint. The star claims that he is not getting bogged down by the pressures of defending the crown.

 

"We are not thinking about the results. We have just come into the tournament and will take on one team at a time. This will help us rather than thinking what we will look like at the end of the tournament," he said.

 

He is also not too much bothered about the fatigue factor which has been brought to the fore by many former players including that of former chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar.

 

"Personally I don't think it hampers us too much because we are used to it. We play throughout the year. If you look at the plus point, we are the most experienced side when it comes to the Twenty20 format," he said.

 

Dhoni also said that one of the prime reasons of their success in the last T20 WC was the positive attitude and the aggression that his players showed.

 

"From then on we were in a do-or-die situation. I think the aggression we showed was particularly important and we backed each other very well. Hopefully it will work for us this time also," he concluded.