Sachin to guide team India in the match against England Lions XI

July 13: In the wake of Dravi’d injury, India’s vice-captain Sachin Tendulkar will lead the team in the three-day match against England Lions XI starting from today.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid is sustaining a calf injury has not practiced from the last three days though the management has termed it as not so serious. Dravid suffered the injury while playing against English county Sussex.

A break for Dravid was also important before the test series begins at the Lords from July 19. The management kept this in mind and opted Dravid out of this warm-up match.

However, Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly who were absent in the opening warm-up match against Sussex will play in this match. On the other hand Anil Kumble, Gautam Gambhir and RP Singh are also left out from the match keeping in mind the coming series. This is also to give newcomers like Ishant Sharma and Ranadev Bose a chance of exposure.

Despite the absence of some senior players, India is looking forward to play with six specialist batsmen and four pace bowlers. However, the batting lineup looks solid with the presence of Sachin and Sourav who can lead the team to a moral boosting win.

For England Lions XI only Andrew Strauss as experienced player will lead the team with some talented youngster. The 12 member squads are as follows:

India: Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Kaarthick, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose and Ramesh Powar.

England Lions XI: Andrew Strauss (captain), Joe Denly, Owais Shah, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara, Tim Ambrose (wk), Adil Rashid, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and Graham Onions.

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