Ousted Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has a chance to revive his faltering cricket career from Thursday after being cleared to play following an elbow injury.
Ganguly, 33, was passed fit by the India cricket board doctor and the national team's physiotherapist who examined the left-hander's elbow, an official said on Wednesday.
Ganguly will lead East Zone against North Zone in the domestic Duleep Trophy first-class match starting in Rajkot on Thursday, hoping to regain batting form and force his way back into the national team. Ganguly was axed as India captain last week and replaced by Rahul Dravid for a series of seven one-day internationals against Sri Lanka and five more against South Africa over the next five weeks.
The left-hander, one of only four batsmen in the world to score 10,000 one-day runs, was not picked in the Indian team for the first two matches against the Sri Lankans, at Nagpur next Tuesday and Mohali on October 28.
But a good performance in domestic cricket could not only see him return to the one-day squad but also stay in the leadership race in case India falters under Dravid.
Ganguly has been dogged by poor form and fitness problems in recent months, contributing just 48 in three home Tests against Pakistan early this year.
He scored a century against Zimbabwe in the opening Test at Bulawayo last month, but his painstaking six-hour knock against the weakest attack in international cricket did not satisfy critics.
Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell were involved in a public spat in September with the coach saying in a leaked e-mail to Indian cricket chiefs that the captain was unfit to lead the team.
Ganguly, the most successful India captain with 21 Test victories, is the fourth batsman in one-day cricket to complete 10,000 runs after compatriot Sachin Tendulkar, Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya and Pakistan's Inzamamul Haq.
Two Indian legends, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, had mixed feelings about Ganguly's possible return to the international stage.
Gavaskar, a prolific opening batsman and former India captain, was aghast that Ganguly's career was being written off.
Ganguly has scored 5,066 runs in 84 Tests with 12 centuries. He also has 10,123 one-day runs in 279 matches with 22 hundreds.