Indications are that Kumar is yet to fully recover from the elbow injury he sustained during practice before the ODI series in South Africa last month.The BCCI has all along maintained that he would be fully fit before the World Cup. No official was, however, willing to give an update on his injury status.
Kumar is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and had yesterday said that the rehab programme was on right track."I am feeling pretty good now. The rehab programme is on the right track and hopefully I will strike a good rhythm before the tournament starts", he told PTI.
India can ill-afford to go into the mega event with an injury cloud over one of its squad members as key players Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have suffered injuries recently while the likes of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra have returned to full fitness.
The Board is likely to take a call on Kumar before India's warm-up game against Australia on February 13 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore after the team's three-day conditioning camp at the NCA starting on February 9.Besides taking a decision on Kumar, the camp will also give a chance to assess the fitness status of Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gambhir.In case Kumar fails to recover fully from his injury, Kerala pacer S Sreesanth could be back into the reckoning for a place in the Indian squad.