India lose opener Gambhir

India will be without opening batsman Gautam Gambhir for the entire limited-overs leg of their tour of England due to concussion.

The left-hander suffered the injury when he hit his head on the Oval turf last week while trying - and failing - to take a catch offered by Kevin Pietersen during the final match of the four-Test npower series.

A spokesman for the Indian team said: "Gautam Gambhir is flying home to India as soon as possible after he was diagnosed with concussion today."

The spokesman added: "He went to see a specialist in Manchester who advised Gautam to have complete rest.

"It was therefore decided he would be sent home and will miss the limited overs series with England."

Gambhir had made a slower-than-expected recovery after taking the knock and complained of impaired vision when he returned to the nets on Monday.

That prompted a decision to send him to a specialist and get to the bottom of the problem, which had seen him forced to bat down the order in both innings of the Oval Test.

His absence adds to India's long injury list and further depletes a batting order already without Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh ahead of the one-off Twenty20 at Old Trafford.