Dravid pulls out off one-day series

Mumbai, December 27: Star batsman Rahul Dravid has opted out of the forthcoming one-day series against England to undergo treatment for a shoulder injury, he is believed to have been carrying for quite sometime.

Dravid, who also ruled himself out of the January 10-13 Challenger Series, will utilise the time to visit South Africa and undergo treatment for his shoulder problem so that he may be fully fit before India's tour to Zimbabwe in March, cricket board executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar said here on Thursday.

The Indian team for the one-dayers will be selected at Bangalore on January 13, he added.

The decision means Dravid, who aggregated 121 runs from four innings in the just concluded three-Test series against England, will miss the five one-dayers, and possibly a sixth one, the venue and date of which are still to be decided.

The five matches are to be played at Kolkata (Jan 22), Chennai (Jan 25), Mumbai (Jan 28) Delhi (Jan 31) and Kanpur (Feb 3).

The stylish middle-order batsman had been one of the few Indian players to remain fully fit till the shoulder problem surfaced during the team's tour to South Africa in October-November.