Australia are confident experienced duo Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden will be fully fit for the upcoming tour of India.
Experienced duo expected to be fit for tough tour
Australia are confident experienced duo Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden will be fully fit for the upcoming tour of India.
Skipper Ponting has been struggling with a wrist injury and left the tour of West Indies early in order to have surgery to cure the problem.
Ponting is back batting in the nets though ahead of the four-Test tour of India, and he is progressing well.
Physiotherapist Alex Kountouris had a look at Ponting in Sydney earlier this week and the feedback from the meeting was that Ponting should be fit for the tough trip to India.
"The feedback was pretty solid, all good," coach Tim Nielsen told the
Herald Sun.
"He has just started batting again as well."
Opener
Big opener Hayden, meanwhile, missed the West Indies with a recurring Achilles tendon problem, but he too is progressing nicely.
"Everything has been progressing exactly as we liked with Haydos," Nielsen added.
More problems for Australia come with the controversy surrounding Andrew Symonds after his disciplinary problems before the one-day series against Bangladesh.
Symonds was dropped after missing a team meeting to go fishing and Nielsen is still not fully sure what the future will be for the all-rounder.
"Until we have finalised everything with Roy (Symonds) and made those decisions, we're probably not really willing to talk about it, to be honest," said the coach.
Australia will name their squad for the first Test in Bangalore on October 9 after the current match between Australia A and India A in Hyderabad.
