Ganguly misses third Test

Sourav Ganguly misses the third Test with a mystery illness © Getty Images

On the eve of the third Test Sourav Ganguly emphatically told reporters, "I am fit, and will play tomorrow." Yet, on the morning of the match he was out of the game, his injury - varying from an abdominal strain to a thigh strain depending on who you believe - having gotten worse. Andrew Leipus, the man charged with dealing with these matters, was candid enough to admit that the exact problem had not yet been diagnosed.

"We don't know what the injury is at the moment," said Leipus. "Since he has been struggling for a couple of days, we thought it would be unwise to go ahead with him. There's a pain in his right groin muscle, something similar to what he had in Bangalore. But during the Chennai Test he was absolutely fine and this happened in practice two days ago."

Ganguly first felt this pang when fielding during the first Test in Bangalore. But Leipus revealed that it was not merely his running and fielding that were a problem: "He was having trouble when transferring weight from one leg to the other and this obviously affected his batting."

Leipus revealed that an MRI scan had shown no problem at all and that further investigations would happen on Wednesday, October 27. "Just to make sure that there is nothing serious wrong, we are going in for bone scan. There might have been a slight problem in the hip joint. But for the moment there is nothing wrong with the muscle but we will still have to find out the reason for the pain."

There have been several rumours about when Ganguly actually knew he was unwell, but Leipus assured reporters that a final decision on his fitness was only taken on the morning of the match. "He woke up this morning and said that he was not feeling any good. So we have to hunt down the problem. And I can't say whether he will be fit for the next Test either." Leipus added that it was impossible to determine how long Ganguly would take to recover till the source of pain was properly diagnosed. "I don't know where the pain is coming from. Because it's the second time it is happening. It was there in Bangalore, gone in Chennai and come back again."