Sachin Tendulkar at nets in Mohali on Sunday

Mohali: India’s second rung players will have a chance to display their talent in front of national coach Greg Chappell but the focus would nevertheless be on Sachin Tendulkar, who attempts a comeback from an elbow injury in the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy meet beginning here on Monday.

Returning to action after a five-month layoff following a surgery to treat his tennis elbow, Sachin’s aim, when he takes guard, would be to assess how his left arm fares against the country’s leading quick bowlers. Depending on that he will take a final decision on his availability for the upcoming ODI series at home against Sri Lanka starting later this month.

As Sachin comes in, Sourav Ganguly walks out with an injury.

Chappellwould be hoping the pitch at the PCA Stadium throws up decent cricket for him to make a genuine assessment of the players on view.

Sachin had a vigorous 20-minute stint at the nets during which he was tested to the full by Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Jai Prakash Yadav and Ajit Agarkar. And, the little master gave it back as much as he got.

Teams (from):

India Senior: Mohammed Kaif (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Satyajit Parab, Y. Venugopal Rao, M. S. Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Jai Prakash Yadav, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan.

India A: V. V. S. Laxman (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Hemang Badani, Neeraj Patel, Dheeraj Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Ramesh Powar, R. P. Singh, Lakshmipathy Balaji, V. R. V. Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Manoj Tewari. (PTI)