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New Delhi: Zaheer Khan may be out of action due to shoulder injury for at least five months, but Indian coach Gary Kirsten insisted on Monday that he is not losing sleep over it.
For the upcoming series of matches, the former South African opening batsman is banking on Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar to make up for Zaheer's absence.
"The kind of performance Zaheer has shown in last couple of years is truly remarkable. His absence is a huge blow but we have pacers in the team who can also do the job and I have high hopes on them," Kirsten told TOI on Monday.
Echoing Kirsten's thoughts, chairman of the selection committee Krish Srikkanth said: "Zaheer has been our main bowler in recent times and his record speaks for itself. We are certainly going to miss him. We don't have any other option if a bowler like him is injured. We have to accept this and move on."
Both Kirsten and Srikkanth however agreed that India has enough bench-strength to tackle this crisis. "Bowlers like RP, Ishant, Nehra and Praveen are capable bowlers and can face any challenge. The Indian team is going to have a four-day camp from August 27 and we hope to sort out everything before the season starts in September," Kirsten said.
When asked if Ishant can carry the burden of expectations, more so in the absence of Zaheer, Kirsten said: "We expected a lot from Ishant and he did produce some extraordinary performances in the last season. He is extremely talented and he is going to get better with every series. I am confident he is going to play a crucial role again."
Kirsten, who was in the Capital with mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton to monitor the fitness regimen of eight Indian cricketers, went about his job in a professional manner. Both he and Upton kept updating their notebooks with the latest readings of players' bip test.
Expectedly, these fitness reports will be tabled next week when the selectors meet to pick the teams for the Sri Lankan tri-series and Champions Trophy. Probably, this is the first time that the entire team will undergo fitness tests before a conditioning camp, that too at the start of the cricket season. Earlier, such fitness tests were conducted at the conditioning camp.
The second round of tests will be conducted on the remaining cricketers in Mumbai on Tuesday. "We have to keep a track record of the fitness standards of the team. All the players are in good shape and we hope to start the season with a bang," Kirsten said.
The eight cricketers who attended the fitness test: Indian skipper MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh, Parveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina.
