Sourav Ganguly

Perth: Sourav Ganguly is again down with viral fever, the third such attack within six weeks.

The former captain, in fact, looked quite unwell when Team India checked into the Hyatt Regency on Sunday afternoon and was almost straightaway driven to a doctor.

“He’s changed the medicines and, if I’m not better by the morning, then I’ve got to undergo a blood test,” Sourav, who has a sore throat too, told The Telegraph.

Manager Chetan Chauhan and physio John Gloster kept Sourav company on his visit to the doctor.

Sourav developed fever during the Bangalore Test against Pakistan and there was a recurrence after the MCG Test. He again began feeling unwell during the three-dayer in Canberra.

While Sourav didn’t play there, he trained regularly and even took the field as a substitute. “He should’ve rested,” said his rather disturbed wife, Dona.

The saving grace, so to say, is that the third Test begins on Wednesday. Time, therefore, for Sourav to recover.

Meanwhile, Monday afternoon is the earliest that the think tank will get to see the Waca wicket and one expects three medium-pacers to be fielded.

It’s not confirmed, but Irfan Pathan seems to have a headstart over Vikram Rajvir Singh and rookie Pankaj Singh. If Pathan gets the nod, then Harbhajan Singh has to sit out.

Again, it’s not official, but it’s almost certain that Virender Sehwag (who smashed 113 in the second innings in Canberra) is going to make the XI at the expense of a woefully out of form Yuvraj Singh.

The picture should become clear by Monday evening.

Footnote: The “monkey” controversy has made Harbhajan a bigger draw than he was before the Sydney Test. Indeed, the offie was mobbed like never before when he got off the hotel’s elevator and moved towards the driveway on the way out for dinner. “Main theek hoon,” Harbhajan told a well-wisher.