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Mumbai: In what could be an unfortunate blow to Team India's plans ahead of the 2011 World Cup, medium-pacer Praveen Kumar - part of the 15-member squad - is learnt to have not yet recovered from his elbow injury and is on his way to the UK for treatment.
However, what is even more unfortunate is that despite knowing Praveen was carrying an injury ever since his tour of South Africa was cut short midway, the selectors still picked him in the squad of 15 without even a fitness test.
The same old fitness sorry - or more appropriately, the lack of it - seems to have returned to haunt India's preparations ahead of the high-profile quadrennial tournament.
On Monday, indications were strong that Praveen's participation in the World Cup hangs in serious doubt and the BCCI, selectors and the team management are waiting to see the results of a final diagnosis. Despite several attempts, no official word was coming out from either of them.
Ever since his return from South Africa, Kumar has been recuperating at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. If he is ruled out, Kerala medium-pacer Sreesanth - who had been in serious contention for the final 15 - will see his chances brightening again.
If Praveen's travel to the UK is given an official go ahead (considering that BCCI is yet to confirm), he'll first have to procure a visa for the same which is bound to consume more time.
For the moment though, it is the status of his injury that should ring alarm bells for India. Considering that the entire team is yet to assemble at the NCA and with less than three weeks for the World Cup to begin, a look at the number of players who returned with injuries from South Africa - either midway or after completing the tour - include Virender Sehwag (shoulder), Gautam Gambhir (elbow), and Sreesanth (elbow) while Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel have recently returned to full fitness.
Before the ODI series in South Africa was to begin, Praveen took a flight back home to recover from his elbow injury as the team management wanted to give him time to prepare for the World Cup. "With the World Cup also in place, we don't want to risk him," Dhoni had said. In hindsight, it seems, the team management's perspective on the player was taken, but the status of his injury was completely ignored.
Now, when the rest of the players start descending in Bangalore for the camp, the focus is certainly going to be on the fitness of those cricketers who had been struggling with injuries prior to the South Africa tour, during the series and after.
The Indian team is scheduled to start assembling in Bangalore from February 8 onwards and the departure to Dhaka for the opening game is scheduled for February 14. That should indicate that the team gets less than a week at the academy during which fitness tests will have to be the order of the day.
