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London: The biggest challenge for defending champions India at the World Twenty20 is maintaining the fitness of their players. For the moment India are sweating on the fitness of Zaheer Khan, their strike bowler, who is yet to recover completely from the injury to his bowling arm, picked mid-way into the IPL recently.
Indian captain MS Dhoni said Zaheer will not be seen in the two warm-up games in the lead-up to the main event, which starts on June 5. A day later, India play their opening game against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge.
"Zaheer is going to miss the warm-ups and we are hoping he will be fit for the first game," Dhoni said during the captains' media conference at Lord's. In another likely setback, Virender Sehwag is recovering from a shoulder injury he picked after the IPL.
"Keeping every player fit and maintaining their fitness is going to be our challenge," a senior member from the team management said.
India arrived on Friday evening and have already had two optional net sessions. On Saturday, Harbhajan Singh was the only one missing while today, Zaheer, Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma decided to opt out.
Despite the injury concerns, Dhoni is still quietly confident about India defending the trophy, which they won in a fairytale fashion in 2007 after being the last to embrace the Twenty20 format. It was also Dhoni's first captaincy stint. He has pleasant memories, no doubt, but is not getting carried away this time.
India have played five games after their 2007 triumph, winning two and losing three - the last two ending in defeats to New Zealand. Dhoni is unperturbed about the twin losses though. "By the second game, we had got the hang of the local conditions and it ended in a close finish, customary in Twenty20. But now, we are fresh from IPL."
"In the last three years there have been less changes in the side, so we gel well as a team. Almost each individual has played around 80 to 90 games and they come up with ideas. If you have 50 ideas you can pick and choose. We have made loads of difference but we have to keep improving."
Dhoni added that the highlight of India's campaign in 2007 was the positive attitude which helped script the improbable after the first game was washed out. "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."
