England suffer another injury setback

NEW DELHI (AP):

England suffered another injury setback when pace bowler Stuart Broad was ruled out of the tournament with a side strain, a day after Kevin Pietersen flew back for hernia surgery.

And Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni indicated before a match against the Netherlands that he would try out more bowlers to correct a perceived weakness in many people's favourites.

Dhoni also defended Indian policemen after a baton charge on people wanting tickets for an India vs. South Africa game in Nagpur.

At Chittagong in Bangladesh, England's World Cup squad was depleted by injury for the second consecutive day when Broad was ruled out of the tournament because of a side strain.

The news came a day after Pietersen flew home for hernia surgery.

Dhoni conceded again that he did not have much hope in improving his team's average fielding.

But he sought to address the team's bowling concerns by trying out pace bowler Ashish Nehra and Ravichandran Ashwin during upcoming league matches, starting with the one against the Netherlands today.

Weighing options

"It's always good to feature all the bowlers to see what options you have got," Dhoni said. "The important thing is to win every game, but definitely we will have to give them (Nehra and Ashwin) a chance, especially in the league stage before entering the knockout stage."

India are ready for their fourth match with five points in the kitty. They have wins against Bangladesh and Ireland and a tie against England.

The Netherlands have yet to register a point after losing their opening three matches to England, West Indies and South Africa.

During a press conference ahead of the match, Dhoni also defended policemen after another baton charge on fans.

Police in the western city of Nagpur made the charge on people seeking tickets for Saturday's match between India and South Africa.

This was the second such incident, with police taking similar action on February 24 when people gathered overnight for tickets to an India vs. England match in the southern city of Bangalore.

"They do not want to cane people," Dhoni said. "It is only when the situation goes out of control and they fear a stampede that they try to control the crowd in such fashion."