Bowling coach Bharat Arun says India have no concerns over the fitness of Ishant Sharma after he again sat out a warm-up fixture on Saturday. For the second day in succession, Ishant remained on the sidelines as India took on a Western Australia XI - this time in a 50-over contest.
Half-centuries from opener Rohit Sharma (67) and Manish Pandey (58) helped the tourists to 249 all out, a total they defended with relative comfort as Western Australia XI were dismissed for 185 in reply. Four bowlers - Rishi Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel - picked up two wickets apiece for India, but much of the post-match talk surrounded the absence of Ishant, who reportedly missed the game due to a cut index finger.
Aran told reporters: "He [Ishant] is perfectly alright. Ishant is a very experienced bowler and if you have noticed before the game he was bowling on the ground. He has been bowling 25-30 balls on the ground, so I guess we would like to try other boys and with [Mohammed] Shami being injured, it becomes all the more important for us to check who we are going to play in the next game. From that point of view it's important that we play the rest."
Shami was ruled out of India's tour of Australia with a hamstring injury on Saturday, his place in the squad going to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The first of five One-day Internationals between the countries takes place in Perth on Tuesday, with three Twenty20s to follow.
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