Wanted: Star batsmen for Pakistan and West Indies

In the end, a 1-1 series result was a fair one, considering the relative strengths of Pakistan and West Indies. The hosts had reason to rejoice after winning their first Test in 28 months, while Pakistan showed their fighting qualities - and a far superior spin attack - to level things and ensure they didn't go back home with a demoralising series defeat.

In all this, though, what shouldn't be lost is the relative lack of batting strength of both teams. Pakistan put up the worse of two limp batting displaysin Providence, while West Indies were clueless in St Kitts. West Indies' highest total in four innings in the entire series was 230, and the top score by a batsman for them was 57, which tells the sorry tale of their batting. Pakistan were a little better, thanks to two centuries in their second innings in St Kitts.

Overall, though, both teams are still trying to come to grips with the loss of two stalwarts who held their batting together for more than a decade. West Indies lost plenty of matches even when Brian Lara was around, but he was at least one star performer to look forward to, while Inzamam-ul-Haq was the glue in Pakistan's middle order. Lara played 134 Tests, averaged 52.88, and scored 34 hundreds; Inzamam played 120, averaged 49.60, and scored 25 centuries. Without them, their teams are struggling to score runs and hundreds.

The table below shows how West Indies and Pakistan have fared in Tests since the retirements of Lara and Inzamam. Pakistan's results are better, thanks largely to their superior bowling attack; in terms of batting, the numbers are pretty similar: West Indies' average is marginally better, as is their rate of scoring centuries per Test. They've also managed more 350-plus totals as opposed to scores of less than 200.

Pakistan and West Indies without their star batsman

Team	Tests	W/L	Runs per wkt	100s/ 50s	100s per Test	350+ totals	Sub-200 totals
Pakistan since Inzamam retired	26	5/ 12	29.45	15/ 67	0.58	9	11
West Indies since Lara retired	34	4/ 17	29.91	27/ 72	0.79	13	12

A look at the team-wise batting stats of teams since Inzamam's retirement shows how poor Pakistan and West Indies have been with the bat, and the gulf between them and the most prolific sides. For a start, only Bangladesh have a lower runs-per-wicket number than them, and even New Zealand - who've been quite an ordinary batting unit during this period - have a slightly higher average. The difference between the top five and the rest is pretty significant too: Sri Lanka, India, South Africa, Australia and England all have 35-plus averages, but the next team, New Zealand, plunge to 28, while Pakistan and West Indies are marginally lower.

The major difference between Pakistan and the other major teams is the conversion rate of fifties into hundreds. Since Inzamam's retirement, Pakistan's batsmen have only managed 15 hundreds in 26 Tests, with two of those coming in the last game against West Indies - that's an average of 0.58 hundreds per Test. During the same period, they've also managed 67 fifties, which makes for a terrible conversion rate of almost four-and-a-half fifties per century; every other team, including Bangladesh, has a better conversion ratio. During the same period South Africa have scored only three more fifties, but more than three times as many hundreds, which offers a fine contrast with Pakistan's numbers.

West Indies' conversion rate isn't so bad - they're only 0.02 poorer than Australia - but they too haven't scored enough fifties or hundreds. Compared to Australia's 1.21 centuries per Test, West Indies have managed 0.83.

Team-wise batting stats in Tests since Oct 13, 2007

Team	Tests	Average*	Strike rate	100s/ 50s	100s per Test	50s per 100
Sri Lanka	28	41.19	55.20	40/ 68	1.43	1.70
India	40	39.73	54.80	58/ 119	1.45	2.05
South Africa	36	39.63	50.51	54/ 70	1.50	1.30
Australia	43	36.56	52.92	52/ 132	1.21	2.54
England	44	35.97	51.09	52/ 106	1.18	2.04
New Zealand	32	28.15	49.99	23/ 77	0.72	3.35
West Indies	30	27.98	47.89	25/ 64	0.83	2.56
Pakistan	26	27.86	46.87	15/ 67	0.58	4.47
Bangladesh	19	23.13	49.33	9/ 36	0.47	4.00

* Only includes runs scored off the bat

Not surprisingly, the list of 34 batsmen who've scored more than 1500 Test runs since October 13, 2007, includes only three West Indians - Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan - and not a single Pakistani. On the other hand, there are four from Sri Lanka (three of them in the top four, in terms of averages), six from India (four in the top 11), five from South Africa, and seven from England.

To look for more West Indian and Pakistani names, the bar needs to be lowered from the lofty heights of 1500 runs. The top few in the table below have done well, but they haven't played in all their team's matches: Gayle has played only 23 of West Indies' 30 Tests in this period, while Sarwan has played 18. Similarly, for Pakistan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan have superb numbers, but they've only played 18 and 12 Tests out of Pakistan's 26.

The problem for both teams has been the other batsmen in the list below, and some others who aren't in the table. Salman Butt, Umar Akmal and Mohammad Yousuf have all averaged in the 30s during this period, which isn't good enough for specialist batsmen. Together, they've scored three centuries in 89 innings. Azhar Ali has impressed in his brief international career so far, but is still searching for his first hundred, despite having topped 50 eight times in 23 innings. Similarly, for West Indies, Devon Smith has gone 21 innings without getting anywhere near a Test hundred - his highest during this period is 55.

Stats of West Indies and Pakistan batsmen since Oct 13, 2007 (Qual: 800 runs)

Batsman	Tests	Runs	Average	100s/ 50s
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	26	1944	60.75	6/ 12
Chris Gayle	23	1894	52.61	6/ 6
Ramnaresh Sarwan	18	1510	48.70	6/ 5
Misbah-ul-Haq	18	1433	57.32	3/ 11
Brendon Nash	20	1093	35.25	2/ 8
Younis Khan	12	1061	58.94	3/ 4
Salman Butt	17	1039	32.46	1/ 6
Umar Akmal	15	988	36.59	1/ 6
Kamran Akmal	18	953	30.74	2/ 5
Mohammad Yousuf	14	889	34.19	1/ 5

Sticky Bravo

Darren Bravo scored only 107 runs in the two Tests against Pakistan, but he made sure he spent plenty of time at the crease, facing 343 deliveries in the series, the highest by far for West Indies. (The second-highest, incidentally, was Kemar Roach with 238.) In all series from the beginning of 2005, only 10 West Indian batsmen have faced more balls in a series in which they played two Tests.

Bravo's problem, though, was his inability to score: his strike rate for the series was 31 runs per 100 balls, which ensures his final numbers for the series don't do justice to the amount of time he spent at the crease. However, he was one of only two half-centurions for West Indies in the series, and his start to his Test career has been mighty impressive - four half-centuries in five Tests, and an average of almost 45. Hopefully, with more experience and confidence, his ability to score runs against all bowlers in all conditions will only improve. Clearly, he's a rare jewel that West Indies can't afford to waste.

Why India should consider having fewer domestic teams

It's important that players like Pujara get the experience of playing in all sorts of conditions. A tours can prepare them well

During a panel discussion to launch my wife's and my book The Winning Way, Stephen Fleming, erudite and dignified as usual, made a very interesting observation that a lot of us should be thinking about. When he was captain of New Zealand, he said, they had to make the most of what they had. They weren't exactly swimming in a pool of talent and so had to work hard to achieve what they did. They were like a single-income family budget or a finance minister in a scarcity-driven economy. Every player counted. I sometimes wonder if that is the attitude that has made generations of New Zealand teams punch above their weight.

As coach of the Chennai Super Kings, Fleming was working with a lot of talent and admitted that it took him time to adapt to working with plenty. Effectively, while in New Zealand he had to optimise resources, here he had to ensure that ability didn't go waste. It is a critical difference. A millionaire can be privileged and yet vulnerable because there isn't the hunger, and therefore the satisfaction, of earning a living. It is also a reason why small-town boys, from less-privileged families, are dominating those that do not always know scarcity.

Fleming also said that when you sometimes have a very large pool of players, you can miss talent pretty quickly, or not find an opportunity for it if it matures late. Many years ago, in a delightful tea-time conversation at the Kensington Oval, Sir Garfield Sobers said something similar about why Barbados produced the extraordinary players it did (just try making an all-time Barbados XI, as Ian Chappell and I once did during a long road journey). The reason, he said, was that they didn't lose any players because it was such a small island, whereas India, he thought, probably lost far too many.

India can either decide that losing players early is like the law of the jungle, where only some survive; or come up with a talent management programme that is specific to players at different stages in their development. I guess you don't have to worry too much with players in the national team apart from managing their workload, but it is those on the fringe or those who have had to be left out that you need to handle carefully.

Let's try and illustrate with a few examples. Players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Sharma and Iqbal Abdulla clearly have the ability but not the exposure to different conditions. They need to play in South Africa, in New Zealand, in England… anywhere. It's like sending a bright young sales executive to Warangal, Hissar and Jorhat. An A-team programme is perfect for them, and maybe it is time to have a parallel A-team tour structure. Indian cricket has the money to fund many development programmes and if they can unearth one gem a year, the investment will yield magnificent dividends.

Then there are players who have been with the Indian team, are clearly men with promise, but who, due to injury or form or competition, have been sidelined. They just need to play as much cricket as possible to get back into rhythm. Not for them, just yet, the high pressure of IPL or international cricket. Maybe cricket of a more relaxed kind, where they can learn more about themselves and their craft, in England for example. These are players like Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, M Vijay, Dinesh Karthik and Manoj Tiwary. If they get the opportunity to play in England, ideally four-day cricket, the BCCI must give its nod by, as they used to say, return post.

But the problem of having too many players needs to be addressed. It is as much a matter of losing players as it is of letting them play cricket of inferior quality. You can guess where I am headed with this line of thought. Keep domestic cricket down to 15 teams. If you don't, it means administrators and votes count for more than cricketers. If India have to stay No. 1, the quality of domestic cricket will be paramount. If it means having fewer teams and fewer administrators, so be it.

'I realised I was on the wrong track'

Off the field Kohli's past has raised eyebrows, but on it, he has raised hopes that he will become one of India's middle-order mainstays

In the season racing past, cricket, to Virat Kohli, must have felt like a washing machine. Through his 12 months with India, Delhi and the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kohli found himself in all manner of cycles - high-speed tumble, delicate, spin, rinse, permanent press.

Just over a month ago, the groundswell of India's World Cup victory just beginning to die down, Kohli was lining up against players he had wept with at the Wankhede. One day it was his captain, MS Dhoni, but he wasn't his captain anymore. The next day Yuvraj Singh had to be stopped from scorching turf, Harbhajan Singh had be stepped out to, and a way had to be found to make Gautam Gambhir step over the line. Kohli had played the IPL before, had understood what it was all about, but this year getting right into it took slightly longer.

Kohli describes his first week in the IPL as "confusing". For the World Cup winners, he said, "it was tough, to motivate ourselves, to actually be at our best. We weren't up to that mental level, to be honest".

Now, though, with only two games left in the tournament's fourth season, Kohli is second behind Chris Gayle in the run-scoring list, (Sachin Tendulkar is within six runs of both men) and has been among the best fielders in the competition. He has even led Bangalore in Daniel Vettori's absence, and on Tuesday he did everything to help Bangalore inch closer to the final: an unbeaten 70 not off 44 balls, followed by a gymnastics-floor exercise special in defence of 175 - attacking the ball, diving, somersaulting and giving the ultra slow-motion cameras plenty to drool over.

Yet at the end of it all, Bangalore and Kohli tumbled to defeat. Once again on Friday, Kohli will be inside the IPL's playoffs machine - and the second qualifying final - versus Mumbai Indians. He'll be asking himself: Again? More?

When viewed from a distance, the game often does not make sense as to how it pans out over the course of a season. To Kohli, though, the past year has brought with it clarity about his batting in the limited-overs game. His is a special ability: to retain what he believes is essential, pure even, about his cricket and yet fit into the whirl of Twenty20, with its insane strike rates and volcanic ash cloud of boundaries that blur perspective and logic.

Whether in 50 overs or 20, when Kohli and his A game take the crease, the rest of him - his image, the tattoos, the emphatic eyebrows, the fin hairdo, the adverts featuring Bollywood starlets and love bites - evaporates. All that remains is the man and his bat.

Off the field, though, Kohli's engagement with the world is mostly through his image as seller of "youth brands." When old fogeys get him to sit still for a few minutes, however, he morphs from punk rocker to cricket philosopher; an open, thoughtful speaker. A short conversation is peppered with words like "self-realisation" and "channelised", and he describes India's performances in the World Cup knockout stages, much like someone from the Tiger Pataudi generation would: "It was probably the best display of team effort I've seen from the Indian team in a long, long time."

In less than four years Kohli has put himself up and ahead of his other contemporaries for a place in what may well turn out to be the new-look Indian middle order in a few seasons. His first step into prominence was as India's Under-19 World Cup winning captain, whose invective-spewing celebration rang a few alarm bells about what India's next generation was going to be like. That was followed by the IPL hellraiser and then the supporting role in a once-in-28-years World Cup victory.

In between all those monumental events, Kohli has survived the unseen: every young cricketer's meaningless wander through the jungles of celebrityhood. About a year ago a switch was thrown in his mind about what he really wanted to achieve.

"Actually, I switched off." he says. That's where all the talk about self-realisation comes from. The junior World Cup victory brought with it mutterings about his bad-boy ways, much like it had for dozens of other youthful sporting success stories. Everyone in Indian cricket is familiar with the tale of how the teenage Kohli resumed his Ranji Trophy innings against Karnataka a few hours after losing his father in December 2006. What happened afterwards is not so well known. Not his lingering personal grief nor the roiling success of the junior World Cup victory.

	In a world where "brands" really matter, tags can be terribly destructive things. Kohli tried to shake off a few with some simple questions and answers. "I said, what am I doing? There's no way I'm going to play for India like that. And that is one thing I wanted to do as a child"

"I had seen a very tough time, when I was about 17, and it was very hard for me to recover from that for the next two years. Not many people have taken that into consideration before giving me that tag and just thinking of me like that." 'That' means the bad boy in fast burn. "I agree, I made a lot of mistakes at that point in time... those were the kind of things I would have done in a normal life but not a stage like the IPL, where a lot of people were watching you." It is as if, in his mind, he is still sorting through the debris.

"I couldn't handle what happened after we won the World Cup. People looking up at you and thinking that you were someone who could play for India and just giving you tags like 'blue-eyed boy' and stuff like that. I couldn't take it, honestly. I made a lot of mistakes."

In a world where "brands" really matter, tags can be terribly destructive things. Kohli tried to shake off a few with some simple questions and answers. "I realised I'm going on the wrong track. It just came from within. I said, what am I doing? There's no way I'm going to play for India like that. And that is one thing I wanted to do as a child."

He returned to cricket and the monotony of practice and nets and the ground, trying to erase 18 months of mistakes. "I used to stay on the field as long as possible and come back home and stay at home. I totally cut off from everything else that I was doing for one and a half years. It started to pay off in my cricket." This shift in his frame of reference has kept Kohli's game at its simplest, treating Twenty20 as a ladder to a better percentage game in 50 overs. He says the Twenty20 format and the six-week IPL helps a batsman one rung up the ladder - in international 50-over cricket. "You improvise more, and that can help you in the one-day format, say whenever you need to attack in a difficult situation."

He lets field hockey keep its scoops and reverses and just fine-tunes what he already possesses. "I know my strengths and weaknesses and I can't play a shot that I'm not used to. I haven't tried to play special shots. I still play the normal shots in Twenty20. But you need to execute them a bit more [thoroughly] than you do in one-dayers just to get results."

Like the delicious six over extra cover - off Albie Morkel - which gave Bangalore the kick in its last few overs on Tuesday night. Twenty20's short attention span meant that effort was obliterated by Suresh Raina's match-winning innings that followed. "It's different to develop a shot over a period of time, but I don't like to try new shots in every match. I just try to stick to my game plan and score runs sticking to the game plan I have."

That game plan has been mostly about seeking gaps to overturn the field, hard running, and turning over strike before picking the moment to move up a gear. At no stage in his international career has Kohli looked uncertain. Five centuries in 57 ODIs for India, three scored chasing (along with nine of his 13 fifties) - what once used to be considered an Indian impossibility. When India field first, Kohli averages over 55, 10 points higher than his career score. It led ESPNcricinfo blogger Andy Zaltzman to predict that Kohli was so good in the chase, "a post-cricket career as a Hollywood stunt car beckons".

Even if completely devoid of a multi-coloured, surround-sound off-field life, Kohli's career itself should not be dull. For a start, he is aware of where he stands. The two cup victories, he says, make him feel "a bit lucky" but they are not his path to entitlement. "I feel very good when I think about it - you have played in your first World Cup and you end up on the winning side - but I feel a bit lucky as well. But I don't want to treat this as if I have achieved something special. Okay, these milestones have come along but I still have a lot of goals I want to achieve. I want to elongate my cricketing career as a consistent player. I have personal goals I would like to achieve someday."

Test cricket, he has often said, is one of those goals, and Kohli is just behind Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle-order queue. After the IPL he will set out on the first leg of India's six-month travels in what will be unfamiliar terrains. Only 15 of his 57 international games have been played outside Asia. But everywhere India go now, they go as world champions. Kohli says the World Cup win has doubled his confidence in international cricket, "but given all of us a sense of added responsibility as well. If you go on top, you need to remain on top. It takes a lot of character."

He has dealt and survived one heavy round of that character-defining stuff. It helped him seal a spot in the World Cup XI, a title victory and a place among the most promising young cricketers in the international game. There's no time to celebrate though; on Friday, in the IPL's second qualifying final, Virat Kohli must go through yet another spin cycle.

Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Gambhir out of entire WI tour

S Badrinath and Abhinav Mukund have been included in the Test side on the back of strong domestic performances

India's depleted squad for the tour of West Indies has suffered two severe blows with Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir being ruled out of the entire trip because of illness and injury respectively. Sachin Tendulkar, who was rested from the one-day series, will now miss the Test leg as well after asking for permission from the BCCI to spend time with his family.

Virat Kohli and Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukundare the only uncapped players in the Test squad.Suresh Raina has been appointed captain for the one-dayers and the Twenty20 fixture, and Harbhajan Singh, the vice-captain. Shikhar Dhawan and Manoj Tiwary have replaced Yuvraj and Gambhir in the limited-overs squad.

Gambhir, who was initially announced as the one-day captain, in place of the resting MS Dhoni, was ruled out due to the shoulder injury he sustained in the World Cup final and aggravated during the IPL. Yuvraj, the Player of the Tournament in the 2011 World Cup, is suffering from a lung infection.

So, in all, India are without Tendulkar, Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer Khan, Gambhir and Ashish Nehra for the one-dayers. Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir and Cheteshwar Pujara, who also picked up an injury during the IPL, are missing from the Test squad that played in South Africa.

The selectors met in Chennai to choose the squad, a meeting that was also attended by newly-appointed coach Duncan Fletcher, whose first assignment will be the tour of West Indies.

Test squad: MS Dhoni (capt), VVS Laxman (vc), M Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel (wk).

Limited-overs squad: Suresh Raina (capt), R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh (vc), Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan.

Bangalore to go with unchanged side

Daniel Vettori says he and Chris Gayle will go through eight overs of spin

Daniel Vettori, captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, has said he will go in to the qualifier against Mumbai Indians with the same team as the one that lost to Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday. The match against Chennai went down to the last over and Vettori said his players were still confident and knew they just needed to fine-tune things in the last five overs, particularly in the bowling department.

"I think I will go with the same team tomorrow [Friday]," Vettori said. "The team is in pretty good stead. We realised small things that went wrong in the last five overs. Prior to that, everything went as per plan."

On Tuesday, Bangalore went in with three seamers, with Vettori the lone specialist spinner. Vettori said the groundsman in Chennai had told him the track would be good for batting, so he was planning to stick with the same combination and rely on Chris Gayle to get through four overs of offspin.

"Chris and myself could target the right areas in the eight overs that we will be bowling and it will be hard to score too many runs. The players who have played in the last 15 games for us have performed well.

"We have to look at the wicket tomorrow. I played here quite some time back. The groundsman is saying the wicket will be good to play on tomorrow. Probably, the wicket for the final will turn a lot more; I do not know."

Bangalore managed to set Chennai 176 to win in the first qualifier, but their bowling let them down, leaving them with a knockout game against Mumbai. Vettori said the positive out of the Chennai game was that they had managed a competitive total despite their top performer so far, Chris Gayle, getting dismissed cheaply, but acknowledged the bowling needed some improvement.

"Chris did not score runs but we were able to put up a competing total. Virat Kohli played a superb game and has played well in the whole tournament. Last match was his best innings so far.

"Our batting has been pretty good in the whole tournament and sooner or later we will deliver with the bowling also. In the last two games Zaheer [Khan] has been at his best and has been taking wickets upfront. I am really pleased with the way he has bowled."

The winner of the Bangalore v Mumbai match will have to play the final the very next day, against Chennai

Decision to play is player's call - IPL chief

Gautam Gambhir played in the IPL despite a shoulder injury

The decision to play is a player's call and no player is forced to represent his club or country, particularly when it's a case of injury, the IPL chief Sundar Raman has said. "I think it has always been up to the player to decide," he told ESPNcricinfo. "Firstly, he has to see whether he is fit or not. And the BCCI physio will take a look at the player and subject to a satisfactory report, he plays.

"The player knows his body better than anyone else does and I don't think I want to sit in judgement on that. If the physio believes that the player is not fit to play a game, he would report that and the player would not play the game.

"Nobody is forced to play. Nobody is forced to play for the country. Nobody is forced to play for their club."

Concerns over players playing despite injuries have come to the fore following Gautam Gambhir's shoulder injury sustained during the World Cup and aggravated during the IPL. Gambhir, who captains Kolkata Knight Riders, played in his team's eliminator play-off on Wednesday hours after the team physio Andrew Leipus wrote to the BCCI that Gambhir needed four to six weeks' rest to recover. Gambhir, however, claimed he had not been aware of the seriousness of the injury and had not discussed the matter with Leipus prior to the game.

Raman refused to comment on the Gambhir issue. "I am honestly not in a position to comment on the Gambhir situation because the Indian physio has to see Gambhir, submit his report, take a view on whether he was fit not fit so it is too premature for me to say right now."

However, he added: "I don't think any player would want to carry or feign an injury and continue to go and play. A player knows his body. I believe they are professionals and if the player is injured, if there are any practices or processes that have not been put in place, that is for the administrative part of it to ensure that all of that is taken care of.

"The player takes the view of somebody who is an expert in that field and I think that's the way it is. I am looking at it as what would I have done? I would have listened to my body."

I never put club before country - Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir says he has played through injuries for India

Gautam Gambhir has rubbished claims he covered up a shoulder injury to play in the IPL, saying he did play with discomfort in his right shoulder but was never aware of the extent of the problem. Gambhir said he had felt the discomfort during the World Cup final but as it wasn't too painful he didn't think it was a major injury, and hence played the IPL, in which he captained Kolkata Knight Riders. Gambhir could now miss India's tour of the West Indies, where he was to captain the side during the limited-overs leg, but insists he never put his franchise before playing for India and would not have risked worsening his injury had he known its nature.

"Any modern cricketer knows that by feigning or risking injury he is only jeopardising his own career," Gambhir told the Hindustan Times. "It is imaginative to say I was covering my injury to play in the IPL. I played with discomfort without realising the gravity of my injury. As a leader, my team needed me, but to say I preferred club over country is ridiculous."

On Wednesday, Kolkata's team trainer Andrew Leipus wrote a letter to the BCCI saying Gambhir had complained of a sore shoulder when he arrived in Kolkata for the IPL and subsequent scans had shown a serious injury that would require four to six weeks to heal. The letter said Gambhir recalled landing on his arm during the World Cup final and feeling acute pain. Gambhir said he did not think it was a major injury at the time.

"I felt some discomfort during the World Cup final, while running between the wickets. It didn't seem major as it wasn't very painful at the time. Any professional cricketer, playing all three formats, will tell you that niggles are all part of the system."

Gambhir admitted he might have aggravated the injury during Kolkata's group-stage match against Mumbai on May 22 in Kolkata but he still didn't think it would be a problem. Asked why he played Kolkata's next game, a knockout match in Mumbai on Wednesday, despite Leipus having already written to the BCCI, he said he had not spoken to Leipus about the injury before the game.

"There was an instance during Sunday's clash against Mumbai Indians when I threw the ball from deep point and felt pain in my right shoulder. I thought it would be fine with a bit of icing or at most I thought I'd get a scan in Mumbai.

"I had an MRI in Mumbai and Leipus got the report. We didn't discuss it as I was preparing for Sunday's game, which was a knockout. It will be misleading to blame the BCCI, Andrew or the Kolkata management for this. I don't think anybody intended to cover up things here."

Gambhir defended his commitment to the national team saying that he had actually played through injuries when his country had needed it.

"I know how hard I have worked for my national cap and what it means to me. Not many people know that in 2008 I played the Ranji Trophy final against Uttar Pradesh with a swollen left hand. Earlier this year, I played the last Test of the South Africa series with an injured left hand. The swelling was so bad I could barely wear a glove. I am proud of the 93 and 64 I got on one of the most difficult pitches. It is embarrassing to publicise my commitment but I have no choice."

He also said missing out on leading India in the West Indies would be a huge setback. "I am so keen to lead the side that even during the breaks between IPL matches I'd discuss with Yusuf Pathan our strategy for conditions in the West Indies. Now let us see how it goes. I hear there will be a fitness test and only post that things will get decided."

Gambhir's opening partner Virender Sehwag also aggravated a pre-existing injury during the IPL and is likely to miss the Tests in the West Indies. The injuries have sparked a debate over the importance given to the IPL by the BCCI, players and franchises and whether players' involvement in the IPL puts them at risk of missing international fixtures.