An already weakened Australia were dealt another injury blow in the one-day series in India after Moises Henriques was ruled out of Thursday’s fifth match here with a damaged hamstring.
Henriques, himself a replacement for the injured James Hopes, hurt his right hamstring during Monday’s fourth game in Mohali.
Injuries have already forced the tourists, who are level 2-2 with the hosts in the seven-match series, to send back fast bowlers Peter Siddle and Brett Lee, wicket-keeper Tim Paine and Hopes.
The world champions were depleted from the start after one-day regulars Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Callum Ferguson and Nathan Bracken pulled out of the series with various niggles.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting was understandably frustrated at the growing injury list that left just 13 fit players to pick from for Thursday’s key match at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium.
”It’s disappointing to see these guys go down because you know how much they want to play and be a part of the series, and do the best they can to win games,” Ponting said on Wednesday.
”I am sure everyone who has returned back home would much rather be here with the series as it is at the moment, but we’ve got what we’ve got.”
Ponting said if Australia win the series with the depleted squad it would rank as one of his team’s most ”amazing” limited-overs performances in recent years.
”If you consider everything that has happened to us over the last couple of weeks, it would be an amazing effort if this group of players were good enough to get over the line,” the captain said.
”But with five or six guys — probably more than that — out of our starting line-ups, we’re going along nicely.
”Certainly for me, every game I play with these guys I want to be able to win, but sometimes that means pushing guys a little bit too hard and some of these injuries come along.”
India will dethrone Australia as the top-ranked one-day team if they win the finely balanced series.
The last two matches will be played in Guwahati on Sunday and Mumbai next Wednesday. — AFP
