Gambhir rules out from 5 ODI in England

India's opening batsman Gautam Gambhir is likely to return home as he is still struggling to recover from the concussion he suffered during the fourth cricket Test against England. India were whitewashed 4-0 in the Test series, lost their number one Test ranking and are in danger of suffering a similar debilitating fate in the one-day series, starting with the first game in Chester-le-Street on September 3.

Gambhir is critical to India’s plans in the ODIs now that his fellow opener Virender Sehwag has been completely ruled out for the five one-dayers and one-off Twenty20 match. He subsequently had to miss the second Test at Trent Bridge. He did play the third Test at Edgbaston and scored 38 and 14 in the two innings.