Ganguly out of fourth Test

Sourav Ganguly, India's captain, will miss this week's fourth Test against Australia at Mumbai after failing to recover from a hip injury, according to a Reuters report. Rahul Dravid will again lead India in his place. "I am out of the match," Ganguly confirmed. "I'm not able to run at all, so I can't play," he is quoted as saying in the same report.

Ganguly, 32, pulled out on the morning of the Nagpur Test, which Australia won by 342 runs, complaining of groin pain. Medical investigations - bone-scan, MRI and diagnostic ultrasound - "revealed intra-articular pathology of the right hip joint noted by increased synovial fluid accumulation," which translates in layman's terms to an injury or inflammation of the hip joint leading to an increase in the lubricating fluid around it. And it can cause pain to radiate down to the thigh and even to the knee.

The diagnosis has not entirely placated certain sections of the Indian media, who have called Ganguly's integrity into question after his sudden withdrawal from the Nagpur Test. One Mumbai paper claimed he had pulled out in "a fit of pique", when he discovered that his request for a spin-friendly surface had been denied.

His absence will allow Mohammad Kaif to play at Mumbai, as he did at Nagpur, while one of Gautam Gambhir or Dheeraj Jadhav will replace the opening batsman Aakash Chopra, who was dropped after scoring only 10 runs in two innings in the last Test.