Wary Gambhir bats at Delhi nets ahead of team's warm-up game

The Delhi team will play the second practice game against the touring England side at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground which will be a day-night affair and Gambhir's presence raised obvious questions as to whether he would be playing the match.

However, Delhi chief coach Vijay Dahiya clarified that neither Gambhir nor Virender Sehwag will be playing the match.

"Gautam has just come to have some serious net practice. He is not playing in the match tomorrow. Viru had also called up to inform that he is not coming," Dahiya said as he kept a close watch on senior opener's batting.

Gambhir batted for a lengthy duration twice but never looked comfortable against the left-arm pace duo of Ashish Nehra and Pradeep Sangwan. Sangwan, who is unlikely to play tomorrow, was seen beating Gambhir's bat on a number of occasions.

"Look, when you score runs, no one looks at your flaws but people talk about it only when you don't get runs. If you ask me what's the problem with Gautam, it is the lack of decisiveness in his footwork," the former India glovesman said.

On the match, Dahiya said that it will be a good opportunity for some of the Delhi players to showcase their skills as it's an official List A match.

"When you are playing a quality side like England, there shouldn't be any lack of motivation even though we haven't qualified for the knock-outs of Ranji Trophy. A good knock or a good spell might help a player to come into prominence," Dahiya said. More