Tendulkar to lead against England Lions

Sachin Tendulkar was on Thursday handed the responsibility of leading the Indian team in the three-day warm-up match against England Lions, beginning in Chelmsford on Friday, following concerns about captain Rahul Dravid's fitness.

Dravid, who is nursing a calf injury, pulled out on the eve of the match in order to be fully fit for the grueling Test series, beginning at Lord's on July 19.

The Indian captain had sustained the injury during the tour opener against county champions Sussex and hasn't taken part fielding drills in the last three days. The team management, however, played down the injury, saying the injury is not serious.

Apart from Dravid, veteran spinner Anil Kumble, opener Gautam Gambhir and paceman Rudra Pratap Singh have also been left out from the 12 shortlisted for the match.

Sourav Ganguly, who sat out of the first warm-up match, returns to bolster the batting as India looks forward to a morale-boosting performance.

Both Ganguly and Tendulkar were rested for the tour opener against Sussex that saw the Indians fail to break the county team's last wicket partnership and clinch victory.

While India did finish the match on a bright note, their inability to clean up the lower order in either innings should be a cause for worry.

The same can be said about the batsmen as well, as they struggled against some impressive pace bowling on the final day.

The Indians are keen to play their top six batsmen and hope they have a good work-out before the first Test.

In the bowling department, Zaheer Khan is set to return to the playing eleven while young Ishant Sharma will be given an opportunity to showcase his skills.

After a good opening day against Sussex, where the Indian batsmen flexed their muscles, the home team bowlers bounced back splendidly on the final day as they made life difficult for the batsmen.

With the England Lions also boasting a strong attack in Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and Graham Onions, the Indian batsmen should expect no favours although the wicket is likely to play true.

England's Test opener Andrew Strauss will be leading a promising side that also includes Owais Shah and Jonathan Trott, who were part of the one-day squad, and Ravi Bopara, who is just coming back after a thigh injury that ruled him out of the one-day series against the West Indies. Dropped for the one-day series, the English selectors would expect the left-handed opener to get some runs ahead of the Test series.

The teams:

India (from): Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose and Ramesh Powar.

England Lions XI: Andrew Strauss (captain), Joe Denly, Owais Shah, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara, Tim Ambrose (wk), Adil Rashid, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and Graham Onions.