Australia struggling to field eleven players at Hyderabad (Lead)

After being struck by more injuries, Australia were struggling to put up eleven fit players in the fifth One-Day International against India here Thursday.

Moises Henriques is the latest to join Australia's growing list of the injured. The all-rounder, who picked up a hamstring injury in the Mohali ODI, would be be the fifth Australian player to fly back home.

Another Australian injured in the Mohali ODI is fast bowler Peter Siddle, who was ruled out of the series and took a flight back home earlier in the day.

Though all-rounder Andrew McDonald and fast bowler Burt Cockely are flying down to India as cover, the duo would only be available for the sixth ODI in Guwahati.

Australians have done well to level the series 2-2 in Mohali after losing consecutive matches in Delhi and Nagpur. But the spate of injuries has left Australian captain Ricky Ponting utterly frustrated ahead of the crucial match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at the Uppal here.

"It's disappointing to see these guys go down because you know how much they want to play and be a part of the series, and do the best they can to win games," Ponting said Wednesday.

"I am sure everyone who has returned back home would much rather be here with the series as it is at the moment, but we've got what we've got."

Ponting said that if Australia manages to win the series with a depleted squad, then it would be one of the most "amazing" performances for the team in recent years.

"If you consider everything that has happened to us over the last couple of weeks, it would be an amazing effort if this group of players were good enough to get over the line," Ponting said.

"But with five or six guys -- probably more than that -- out of our starting line-ups, we are going along nicely. Certainly for me, every game I play with these guys I want to win, but sometimes that means pushing guys a little bit too hard and some of these injuries come along," he added.

India, however, are likley to retain the same side that played in Mohali and the onus will be on youngsters like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja to perform with the bat.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had said that India would bounce back in Hyderabad to take the lead in the series.

The good news for the team is that Gautam Gambhir will be fit and would be back in the No.3 spot.

The bowlers have done a decent job in the series so far but all eyes will be on the batsmen who could not surpass 250 on a good batting track in Mohali. Sachin Tendulkar, who was unlucky to be given out lbw in a bad umpiring call in the last ODI, is seven short of reaching the personal milestone 17,000 run.

abr/av/vt

( 499 Words)

2009-11-04-19:53:44 (IANS)

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