Kolkata: India skipper Saurav Ganguly on Sunday said that star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and strike bowler Zaheer Khan would be given adequate time to recover from their injuries so that they could be fit before the World Cup in February.

Describing Tendulkar and Khan as "two key players" of the team, Ganguly said, "We have the New Zealand series ahead and then the World Cup in February. If injury problems are not addressed now, we may not have time later."

While Zaheer Khan had been dropped from the third Test and first three One-day matches, Tendulkar was ruled out for the whole seven-match one day series against West Indies.

Ganguly said he was aware that Tendulkar was suffering from hamstring strains "for sometime now".

On the absence of the two players in the One-day series, he said, "You cannot help it. Lets go with what we have. I think we still have a good team."

West Indies skipper Carl Hooper said the Indian team had rested the two players "probably with an eye to the World Cup".

Extras:
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