MUMBAI: There was encouraging news about injured youngster Suresh Raina ahead of the national senior selection panel meeting here on July 7 to choose the 30 probables for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.
The 20-year-old has started training under the supervision of the son of Cricket Board's medical expert Anant Joshi.
"Raina seems to have improved after his injury and has started training under Dr Anant Joshi's son (Mithun)," BCCI's Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said on Wednesday.
The Uttar Pradesh batsman suffered a knee injury during the Central Zone one-day tournament and has been out of action for over four months.
However, Bengal youngster Manoj Tiwari, who dislocated his shoulder on his maiden overseas visit to Bangladesh in May, is some weeks off from being fit.
"Tiwari is on a rehabilitation process (following his shoulder surgery performed in London) and it will take another two to three weeks more (for his recovery)," Shetty said.
The list of 30 probables will be pruned to 15 a month before the tournament starts on September 11.
But with the BCCI's stipulation that players coming back from injury need to prove their fitness by playing in domestic cricket, it is not clear whether Raina and Tiwari, as well as paceman Munaf Patel, can make it even to the preliminary list.
The injury-prone Patel dropped out of the Bangladesh tour before the second Test and was not considered for the initial part of the tour of the United Kingdom.
