Johnson may recover for second ODI

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Nagpur: Even though chief selector Andrew Hilditch has ruled out Mitchell Johnson for the second ODI against India, Australia coach Tim Nielsen is hoping against hopes that the left-arm pacer would put behind his ankle injury and turn up for the match on Tuesday.

Hilditch had announced this morning that Johnson is one of the three injured players -- Brett Lee and Adam Hopes being the other two -- who would miss Tuesday's match with injuries.

Nielsen conceded Lee and Hopes would sit out in the second ODI but sounded optimistic about Johnson's chances.

"Brett is certainly out of tomorrow's game but Mitchell Johnson's woken up a lot better today morning than we thought he would be when we drafted the media release yesterday evening," said Nielsen.

"We will see how he pulls up through the training session and all the indications are that he might well be available tomorrow morning," the Aussie coach said.

"At this stage, Mitchell is not completely out. Brett is probably out for one and we expect Hopes to probably miss the next two games. It is part and parcel of the game," Nielsen added.

"It was a bit of a scatter-bomb yesterday. I mean I don't remember a team losing three bowlers in one day. It was an unusual circumstance," Nielsen said, adding the squad's death bowling looks a lot less experienced for tomorrow's tie.

"We certainly are inexperienced in that area. If Mitchell and Brett cannot play then we are losing about 300 matches in ODIs in terms of their experience. And we are talking about six or seven (games) between Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger," he said.

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