Sachin Tendulkar was today officially ruled out of the three-day match between Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the visiting Australian cricket team, which is to begin at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday.
The master batsman's name did not figure in the 16 member squad, led by leg-spinner Sairaj Bahatule, released today by Mumbai Cricket Association joint secretary Lalchand Rajput.
Earlier, it had been announced that Tendulkar would play the match if he recovered from his tennis elbow affliction and regained full fitness.
There are three changes in the team, which lost by a huge margin to the Rest of India in the season-opening Irani Cup clash at Mohali near Chandigarh. Quick bowler Ajit Agarkar, who was away in England during the Mohali tie, and newcomers Santosh Shinde, a medium-pacer, and batsman Rohit Sharma have been drafted into the squad.
Mumbai selection committee chairman and former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar has been very impressed with Sharma who
could not make it to Mohali because of viral fever after being named in the original squad.
The Australians are expected to name their squad tomorrow. They may be forced to leave out key middle-order batsman Darren Lehmann, who is expected to reach Mumbai only on the morning of the warm-up game after his flight out of Melbourne was delayed by foggy conditions.
Mumbai (from): Sairaj Bahutule (captain), Vinod Kambli (vice-captain), Ajit Agarkar, Vinayak Mane, Wasim Jaffer, Bhavin Thakkar, Amol Muzumdar, Vinayak Samant (wk), Vinit Indulkar, Ramesh Powar, Aavishkar Salvi, Swapnil Hazare, Nilesh
Kulkarni, Robin Morris, Santosh Shinde, Rohit Sharma.
Meanwhile, Tendulkar is expected to call on Dr Anant Joshi, the official sports medicine expert of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and Andrew Leipus, the Indian team physiotherapist, over the next few days, according to his wife Anjali.
"He is due to meet the doctors in a few days' time," she told the Press Trust of India after the couple returned from the famous shrine of Sai Baba at Shirdi near Nashik yesterday with their two children and Tendulkar's mother.
The ace batsman is racing against time to be fit for the first Test against Australia, which is set to commence at Bangalore on October 6. If he misses this Test, it will be only the fourth time he would have been unable to represent the country at the highest level. He missed all three Tests in the series in Sri Lanka in 2001, also because of injury.
Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly told reporters in Kolkata yesterday that the master batsman would be included in the first team even if he passed the fitness test on the eve of the Bangalore Test.
"I don't know yet whether he will be fit for the first Test," Ganguly said. "The Bangalore match is still nine days away. If Sachin gets fit even a day or two before the match, then he will play. But I'm hopeful."
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