Ganguly ruled out of Challenger Series

Sourav Ganguly has been ruled out of the Challenger Series one-day tournament owing to a "mild tennis elbow symptom". Ganguly underwent a fitness test in Mumbai today and was advised ten days' rest and will miss out on leading the India Seniors side in the Challengers, starting on October 10 at Mohali. This news comes just a few days after Sachin Tendulkar announced that he had recovered from his tennis elbow and was ready to return to competitive cricket.

Ganguly's fitness test was supervised by John Gloster, the Indian team physio, and Dr Anant Joshi, the chief of the Indian board's medical panel. "Gloster and Dr Joshi examined the injury and also studied the MRI report," the Board of Control for Cricket in India said in a press release today. "In their opinion, it was a mild tennis elbow symptom." The release also said he was advised ten days rest and would return to Mumbai for reassessment after the ten-day period.

Ganguly, who suffered the injury during India's three-day warm-up game on the Zimbabwe tour, had already undergone an MRI of his injured right elbow following the advice of his family physician and noted orthopaedic, Dr Kalyan Mukherjee.

Mohammad Kaif will lead the India Seniors side in Ganguly's absence. Satyajit Parab, the Baroda batsman who was picked in the India B squad, will replace Ganguly in the India Seniors side while Yousuf Pathan, Irfan's brother and legspinning allrounder for Baroda, was named in the India B side.