Indian cricket's injury woes have not ended. Tuesday saw VVS Laxman's replacement Hemang Badani and Zaheer Khan drop out of the team for the South Africa tri-series.

Badani declared that he was unfit to replace Laxman after an early morning scan revealed that he had a stress fracture in the back. The Tamil Nadu left-hander sustained the injury while fielding in the Moin-Ud Dowlah tournament played in Hyderabad recently. It was only yesterday evening that Badani had been named to replace Laxman who needs more time to recover from a knee operation.

Zaheer Khan meanwhile has yet to recover from the shin injury he sustained in the last Test in Sri Lanka. BCCI's sports medicine expert Dr Anant Joshi who put Zaheer through the drills at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai found that the left-arm pacer was not yet match fit.

Dr Joshi has advised the Baroda fast bowler to rest for another two weeks. Zaheer though is expected to return for the Test series.

Baroda batsman Jacob Martin will replace Badani while Punjab medium-pacer Harvinder Singh will replace Zaheer.

Meanwhile, Ashish Nehra too was found to be less than completely fit. "Though Nehra insists that he does not experience any pain in his groin, Joshi and Lillee felt he was not able to give his cent per cent at the nets yesterday and today," sources told the Press Trust of India.

The selectors have been asked to find a replacement for Nehra too in case he fails the final fitness tests on September 22, 23.

Orissa medium-pacer Debasis Mohanty is expected to get the nod if Nehra too proves unfit as Mumbai seamer Ajit Agarkar was also reportedly not fully fit.

© CricInfo