Ill Indians skip practice

Star batsman Sachin Tendulkar was among five players unable to practice due to illness as India were given a fitness scare on the eve of Friday's NatWest Series match in Bristol.

Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar had to leave Thursday's net session shortly after arriving, suffering from fever and aching limbs - the same symptoms which kept Zaheer Khan, RP Singh and Yuvraj Singh at the tourists' hotel.

Although it is not yet clear how doubtful the quintet are, it would be a risk to play them all if they still feel under the weather.

The disruption comes just a couple of days after England thrashed Rahul Dravid's side by 104 runs in the opener of the seven-match campaign.

Prior to today's net session, captain Dravid revealed he, deputy Mahendra Dhoni and tour manager Chandu Borde had held lengthy discussions about what went wrong at the Rose Bowl.

The changes planned, however, may well be shelved depending on availability for the day-night encounter.

"When you don't have a good result you have to look at the balance of your team, your combinations, what might work better and what might be more suited," said Dravid.

"We've had a meeting, looked at some of the areas we need to do better at and we know we have to bounce back quickly.

"We know it was not a very good performance and the good thing about it is there is not much time in between the games, so there is a chance to correct things straight away.

"We knew we were going to be tested in this series despite what people might have said."