Tendulkar all but ruled out

Sachin Tendulkar: missing out on cricket because of a tennis elbow © Getty Images

Sachin Tendulkar has been all but ruled out of the first Test between India and Australia starting in Bangalore tomorrow. Tendulkar, recovering from a painful tennis elbow which has kept him out of cricket since August, arrived in Bangalore on Wednesday morning, but Andrew Leipus, the Indian team's physio, said that he was "very doubtful" for the Test.

Tendulkar has been included in the Indian squad for the first two Tests despite not having had a net session for six weeks. Leipus, who checked him yesterday, said there had been much improvement. Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, however, was hoping against hope. "You, me, all of us are hopeful," he was quoted as saying in the Times of India, "that¹s what I can say."

Tendulkar¹s absence clears one issue for the Indian team, though. Barring drastic measures, it is now almost certain that Aakash Chopra, whose stolid resistance laid the foundation for many huge Indian totals in Australia, will open with Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh, who scored an electrifying century against Pakistan at Lahore, will bat at No. 6. VVS Laxman, who the Australians fear even more than Tendulkar, is likely to take the No. 4 position.