Injury scare for Gambhir, Sehwag

In an injury scare, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir was on Sunday rushed to a local hospital in Chandigarh after being hit on his right wrist by a delivery during Board President XI's game against Australia only to be discharged later without any problem.

At the nearby PCA Stadium at Mohali, which is to host India's first Test against Australia from October 1, Gambhir's opening partner Virender Sehwag was hit on his knee by an Ishant Sharma delivery.

The two incidents relating to the Indian cricket team members just days before the Mohali Test caused a minor scare, but things ended on a happy note.

The first incident occurred inside the Sector 16 cricket stadium in Chandigarh, where Australia is playing a three-day warm up game against the Board President's XI.

Leading the B P XI side, Gambhir, who is making a comeback after an injury, got out to a rising delivery from Australian speedster Ben Hilfenhaus. The ball hit him near the right wrist and he tried to shake off the pain as he walked back to the pavillion.

However, soon after there was a commotion of sorts as a medical team at the Sector 16 stadium, comprising senior government doctors who were kept standby, rushed after being summoned.

A senior orthopedician from Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here was also summoned and an ambulance was readied.

Gambhir was taken to Government Multi Specialty Hospital at Sector 16 in the car of a senior doctor, his hand wrapped in an ice pack. However, Gambhir returned to the stadium after being given first aid.

"We did a MRI of his hand, but luckily there was no injury. We did not want to take any chances," a doctor, who accompanied Gambhir from the stadium to the hospital, said adding there was nothing to worry about.

There was another scare when some Indian Test players, who reached Chandigarh on Sunday, did some practice at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium at Mohali.

A delivery bowled by speedster Ishant hit Sehwag on his right knee and he was immediately taken off and given medical assistance.

Sehwag later played down the incident. When asked after the net session if he was injured, Sehwag gave a wide smile and said "What knee".

The players, including Sachin Tendulkar, had an exhaustive three-hour practice session at the nets at the PCA stadium ahead of the first Test of the two-match series against Australia starting there from October 1.

Tendulkar, Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra sweated it out at the nets as coach Gary Kirsten kept a watchful eye.

Kirsten later said that he was pleased with the effort put in by the players.

While skipper M S Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Murali Vijay, who are in South Africa for the Champions League Twenty20, are expected to join the team in a few days, Rahul Dravid is expected to arrive on Monday.

Meanwhile, PCA chief Inderjeet Singh Bindra said that a new stadium will come up after the 2011 World Cup and it would be more than twice the size of the present one and is likely to have an automatic roof so that games are not interrupted due to bad weather.