Sunrisers Hyderabad, the new IPl outfit, have suffered a blow ahead of the tournament with star player Shikhar Dhawan being ruled out due to injury for at least their opening tie against Pune Warriors, to be held on April 5.
"Shikhar Dhawan at this stage will not be available for the first game. We are obviously working closely with the BCCI and the medical team with regard to his progress," Sunrisers coach Tom Moody said here on Friday. "We are hoping that within a couple of weeks he will be available to join the team," he added.
Dhawan, who scored fastest ever century on debut in the recently-concluded Test series against Australia, had sustained an injury during the series.
Asked how many matches Dhawan is likely to miss, Moody replied: "We don't know as yet. We are hoping that he is going to have a speedy recovery."
Regarding the Sri lankan players in the team — Kumar Sangakkara and Thisara Perera — who would not be able to play in Chennai, Moody said the issue will be dealt by the officials. "We will let the officials deal with the delicate situation. Both the players (Sangakkara and Perera) are coming and I am sure the officials will sort out the situation in Chennai," he said.
MI begins training for IPl
Mumbai: Mumbai Indians players on Friday underwent a training session ahead of the IPl season beginning next week with captain Ricky Ponting having a feel of the team environment though he did not take part in the practice.
Ponting joined the team after arriving on Thursday night and was present at the training session at the Wankhede Stadium.
MI begin their campaign against Royal Challengers in Bangalore on April 4.
Zaheer skips nets again
Bangalore: Royal Challengers Bangalore pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who yesterday missed the team's net session, on Friday took part in some sprinting under the watchful eyes of physio Ashish Kaushik. Zaheer arrived at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, but did not go to the National Cricket Academy for net practice. Instead he did some running for nearly an hour, even as his teammates were busy doing catching practice at the other corner.
After sprinting for 10 minutes, Zaheer was seen resting his hands on his knees and sitting on the toes. Zaheer had sustained a calf injury during Mumbai's Ranji Trophy game against Gujarat last December and was then dropped from the Indian Test squad against England.
Finch as Clarke's replacement
Pune: Pune Warriors have roped in Aaron Finch as replacement for Michael Clarke. The Australian captain was ruled out of the entire season with a back injury. Finch, a top-order batsman from Australia, tweeted the development and is expected to leave for India on Saturday. Pune Warriors will be Finch's third team in the IPl, having represented Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. He was released by Daredevils in November last year and went unsold in the auction on February 3 at a base price of $200,000.