![]() "Due to the pandemic, the bowlers probably haven't had enough overs under their belt ahead of a gruelling Test series like this. Nishanta Bordoloi, who was a fitness trainer with Delhi Ranji Trophy team and has also worked at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, points out to lack of enough cricket as a possible reason. This is besides the fitness worries over their batsmen. Umesh and Saini have, however, bowled only 39.4 and 36.5 overs respectively which is why their injuries are even more surprising. Two of those, Ashwin and Bumrah, are unfit. Among them, Ashwin, Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are the only ones to have bowled over 100 overs each. In contrast, India have tried as many as 10 bowlers. Apart from these four, they have tried two more in Cameron Green and Marnus Labuschagne, who has bowled just nine overs through the series. Importantly, Australia's four front-line bowlers - Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon - have bowled 435.1 overs in the first three Tests and are fit enough to play the fourth Test. ![]() Compared to India, the Australians had lost only David Warner to soft tissue injury - groin - in the Test series and he has somehow regained fitness to play the last two Tests. However, the other injuries show that the level of match-fitness of the players is not good enough. Those injuries can't be put down to fitness. There have been unavoidable, freak injuries like the one to fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who fractured his arm after being hit by a delivery from Pat Cummins in the first Test, and Jadeja dislocating his thumb after being hit by a Mitchell Starc delivery in the third Test. Rohit Sharma has just returned from a hamstring injury, joining the team for the last two Tests, but is largely restricted close to the wicket on the field with minimal movement. Ravindra Jadeja, who has a dislocated thumb, was also suspected to have suffered hamstring injury during the ODIs. Earlier, fast bowler Umesh Yadav too had limped off the field during the second Test in Melbourne with a calf strain. Ashwin (tweaked back), Jasprit Bumrah (abdominal strain) and Hanuma Vihari (hamstring), who all played the first three Tests but are not featuring in the fourth Test. Saini, who had earlier on the tour complained of back spasms, follows R. NEW DELHI: Lack of supreme fitness, along with a sudden spike in workload and not enough recovery, has emerged as the main cause of soft tissue injuries that have afflicted the Indians on the tour of Australia as pace bowler Navdeep Saini became the latest injury victim when he limped off the Gabba ground due to pain in groin on the first day of the fourth and final Test in Brisbane on Friday.
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