Southampton, Sep 5: Laid low by a spate of injuries, India suffered a big jolt with Sachin Tendulkar ruled out of the series as the demoralised visitors are forced to go into the second cricket one-dayer against England here tomorrow with severely limited batting resources.
Tendulkar was carrying a toe injury for quite a while but the problem aggravated just before the opening match of the five-match series at Chester-le-Street on Saturday.
The 38-year-old Tendulkar missed the opening match of the ODI series and has now been ruled out for four weeks, leaving a struggling India without their most accomplished batsman.
Such is India's injury plight that they may have to go in with five specialist bowlers since there are no batting options available.
Injured batsman Rohit Sharma's replacement Manoj Tiwary is yet to join the squad while Ravindra Jadeja, who was included in the team as a replacement for Gautam Gambhir, is expected to arrive tomorrow and may not be in a position to play.
India will now have to play out of their skin to be able to put it across England in the series.
The world champions were in a good position to win the first one-day international on Saturday before rain played spoilsport but there was enough from the game for India to get interested in its bench strength.
On the positive side, openers Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane caught the eye immediately and made England's pace battery wait for the first breakthrough longer than they have throughout the summer. Vinay Kumar, in the little he bowled, also showed good control. PTI
