Decision on Gambhir after a medical consultation

Gautam Gambhir is expected to consult a medical specialist in Manchester on Tuesday and a decision on whether he will play in the ODI series against England or return home will be made on the basis of the report.

In what could be a big blow to the world champions in the forthcoming one-day series, Gambhir is likely to suffer the fate of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag who came or joined the Indian squad and left without lending significantly to the team's cause.

Gambhir had backpedalled to catch a pull by Kevin Pietersen at mid-on on the second day of the final Test at the Oval on August 19, tripped and fell on his head and subsequently suffered from a blurred vision.

Gambhir didn't open in both innings of the Oval Test and came down late in the order, contributing little by way of runs.

Since then, Gambhir has visited doctors and got MRI scans done which have shown clean results yet Gambhir's condition hasn't improved. He was not included in the side to play a T20 match against Leicestershire on Monday as he was not deemed fit to face pace bowling.

Gambhir's case could be similar to the one suffered by South African fast bowler Dale Steyn during the Champions League last year when he too had backpedalled to take catch Michael Hussey in a semi-final clash between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The pacer fell on his head and Steyn's MRI scans too showed little but the paceman took 3-4 weeks to get himself sorted out.

By the looks of it, Gambhir could also suffer a similar fate and be out of action for 3-4 weeks, putting in doubt even his participation when England pay a return visit to India for a one-day series in early October.

(With inputs from PTI)