Issuing medical bulletins and mulling over a team that failed to live up to its rich vein of numbers, be it runs or wickets, has been M.S. Dhoni's plight through this tour. Sadly there seems to be no relief in sight as Sachin Tendulkar too has joined the list of those advancing their return tickets to India.

The maestro's toe-injury forced him out of the squad and has compounded India's woes. Dhoni must have surely wondered about the limited options he has in fielding a strong eleven at the Rose Bowl here for Tuesday's second ODI of the NatWest Series.

Ravindra Jadeja is yet to join the team due to the delay in getting his visa, Manoj Tiwary is on the flight to England and on Monday afternoon, the team had just 13 players at practice. To make it worse even that training session was affected by rain.

The Indian captain has often stated his preference for fielding seven batsmen, but unfortunately the injuries, especially the ones that derailed Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma, have reduced the ratio of fit willow wielders in the squad.

Dhoni obviously cannot risk playing a jet-lagged Tiwary, who once got a rude wake-up call from a Brett Lee yorker shortly after landing in Australia. The skipper's hand has been forced and he will have to play an extra bowler and one among R.P. Singh, Amit Mishra and Varun Aaron, will get the nod.

The depressing medley of stiff limbs and dark clouds does fit into this tour's theme of sighs and slumps. The Indian team was ready to unveil its combative spirit but dark clouds doused the flame at Chester-le-Street on Saturday.

In that first match, India did well with Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane braving past the first spells and though Rahul Dravid suffered another iffy decision and Stuart Broad pinged Rohit Sharma's right hand, Suresh Raina's fervour at number six augured well.

In the press box, a sceptical Farokh Engineer felt that India had fallen short in the batting Power Play (38/1) but Praveen Kumar scalped England captain Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter and the host would have struggled against a revised target if the rain had stopped.

Morale high
India now needs a stirring performance and though Parthiv said that the morale was high in the dressing room, defeat can scald and rain-breaks breed boredom.
Dhoni and his mates can look up the Wisden and read about the 1996 tour on which Navjot Singh Sidhu's desertion and Sanjay Manjrekar's injury rankled but two men broke through that gloom and made a name for themselves — Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

Dravid is still playing while Ganguly wears dapper suits and does commentary. If the man, who once removed his shirt at Lord's, rues that he did not get his cricket gear out here, he cannot be blamed considering the extent of injury-enforced departures within the team.

India needs another moment of hope like the one it enjoyed in 1996 and Ian Bell said: “It is a tough team to break in and I would believe that any young player who gets into that Indian squad would want to score as much as they can and get as many wickets.”

England is aware that in the limited-over format, its bowling riches cannot be fully advertised. On Saturday, the fast bowlers got carried away in bouncing at Parthiv and it was one morning when intimidation did not work.

On the match eve here, Graeme Swann bowled in the nets though there is no clarity about whether he has fully recovered from the viral bout that benched him at Chester-le-Street.
Among its batsmen, Cook and Bell would relish their memories.

In the 2007 NatWest match here, Cook scored 102, Bell remained unbeaten on 126 and England defeated India by 104 runs.

For now, India and England will also have to grapple with the weather's quixotic ways under lights as rain is forecast during the match.

The teams (from): India: M.S. Dhoni (captain), Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Varun Aaron, Vinay Kumar, R.P. Singh, Amit Mishra, R. Ashwin, Manoj Tiwary and Ravindra Jadeja.

England: Alastair Cook (captain), Craig Kieswetter, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Ravi Bopara, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Samit Patel and Graeme Swann.

Umpires: Billy Doctrove and Rob Bailey; Third umpire: Marais Erasmus.

Match referee: Jeff Crowe.

Match starts at 6.30 p.m. IST.