Injured Henriques ruled out

Aussie all-rounder joins growing injury list

By Rachel Griffiths   Last updated: 4th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Injured Henriques ruled out

Henriques: Heading home

I am sure everyone who has returned back home would much rather be here with the series as it is at the moment, but we've got what we've got

Ricky Ponting
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Moises Henriques has become the latest casualty in Australia's already weakened squad, dealing another blow to their one-day series campaign in India.

The New South Wales all-rounder, who was himself a replacement for the injured James Hopes, was ruled out of the fifth match after damaging his hamstring during the tourists' 24-run victory in Mohali.

The world champions, who are level 2-2 with the hosts in the seven-match series, have already been forced to send home fast bowlers Peter Siddle and Brett Lee, wicket-keeper Tim Paine and Hopes because of injury.

Additionally, the absence of one-day regulars Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Callum Ferguson and Nathan Bracken due to various niggles meant the squad was depleted from the start.

Frustrating

The increasing toll of casualties that has left just 13 fit players to pick from for the upcoming key match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium has been incredibly frustrating for Australia skipper Ricky Ponting.

"It's disappointing to see these guys go down because you know how much they want to play and be a part of the series, and do the best they can to win games," said Ponting.

"I am sure everyone who has returned back home would much rather be here with the series as it is at the moment, but we've got what we've got."

The final two matches will be played in Guwahati and Mumbai, with India set to snatch Australia's crown as the top-ranked one-day team if they win the series.

Ponting believes if the tourists can prevail with the depleted squad it would be an incredible achievement.

"If you consider everything that has happened to us over the last couple of weeks, it would be an amazing effort if this group of players were good enough to get over the line," said Ponting.

"But with five or six guys - probably more than that - out of our starting line-ups, we're going along nicely.

"Certainly for me, every game I play with these guys I want to be able to win, but sometimes that means pushing guys a little bit too hard and some of these injuries come along."