World champion Australia said Thursday it was struggling to focus on the ongoing one-day series in India because the team had been decimated by a string of injuries to key players. With the seven-match series tied at 1-1, the injury-plagued tourists are down to the bare bones for the third international at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Saturday. “With a few little niggles around, the focuses do tend to go towards that,” said left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, himself battling an ankle injury. “But we have got to regroup, sit in our team meetings and talk about what went wrong in Nagpur and what we thought we did right out there.” Australia won the first match, in Vadodara Sunday, by four runs, before crashing to a heavy defeat in Nagpur Wednesday after India piled up a mammoth 354-7 and bowled out the tourists for 255. Ricky Ponting's men came to India depleted by the absence of four one-day regulars, vice captain Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Nathan Bracken and Callum Ferguson. Pace spearhead Brett Lee (elbow) and all-rounder James Hopes (hamstring) missed Nagpur, while Johnson only just made it. In a further blow, wicket-keeper Tim Paine – a replacement for Haddin – broke a finger during the demolition in Nagpur and has been asked to return home. The selectors, who flew in young all-rounder Moises Henriques to reinforce the injury-stricken squad, have now called up Graham Manou to replace Paine. If Manou arrives in New Delhi by Friday, he is certain to play a day later, but it is unclear if Lee and Hopes will be available for selection Saturday. “I am hoping to be fit, but it all depends on Friday's training session,” Lee, 32, told reporters here. “I'll have a bowl in the nets and assess how it goes. I sat out of Nagpur more as a precaution. It's not a long-term thing but just a mild injury. “When you try and bowl 150 miles an hour all the time, a time will come when there will be a niggle or two. I have been playing a lot recently, so I was due for rest anyway,” he said. India needs to win the series to overtake Ponting's men as the top-ranked one-day team in the world. The 30-year-old Manou made his international debut as a last-minute replacement for Haddin in the drawn third Test at Birmingham, but picked up a hand injury which confined him to the one international appearance. Sangakkara urges team to focus on cricket Sri Lanka Test captain Kumar Sangakkara has told his players to concentrate on their game instead of complaining about conditions during their upcoming tour of India. “The attitude should be simple. The first thing we should start with is no complaints with anything,” Sangakkara said Thursday. He said the players should focus on things within their control rather than complaining about the pitches, weather or food when Sri Lanka travels to India for three test matches, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 games next month. Sangakkara said he expects the tour to be “very exiting and also a daunting task,” with Sri Lanka yet to win a test in India. Sri Lanka has lost eight of the 14 tests it has played in India. Meanwhile, Sangakkara also said veteran opening batsman Sanath Jayasuriya will drop down the batting order in the one-day internationals to allow left-handed batsman Upul Tharanga to open with Tillakaratne Dilshan. The 40-year-old Jayasuriya has opened batting in 387 of his 441 ODIs, scoring 12,738 runs as an opener with an average of 34. Fleming rules out New Zealand coaching job Former New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming Wednesday ruled himself out as the new coach for the national team. New Zealand Cricket is looking for a successor following the resignation of Andy Moles at the weekend after it was revealed he had lost the confidence of the team after less than a year in the job.Fleming's name was one of the first to be suggested by commentators as a possible successor but he scotched the speculation. “It is not my interest to coach internationally,” Fleming said on commercial radio. “I am very happy with the business side of things I am looking to set up, and with my family life. I do not have the time (for coaching) and I do not have the desire.” Fleming captained New Zealand for a decade and played 111 Tests and 247 ODIs before retiring last year. – Agencies The 36-year-old is establishing a business career, as well as coaching Chennai in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League.
