Hoggard gives England Lord's Test scare

England are sweating over the fitness of Matthew Hoggard ahead of the first Test against India at Lord's.

The 30-year-old Yorkshire seamer was sent for an MRI scan after suffering discomfort following a back spasm while bowling in the nets.

And a team spokesman has indicated that Hoggard is rated as "extremely doubtful" for the opening match of the three-Test series.

Should Hoggard be ruled out, it would leave coach Peter Moores with an inexperienced line-up to take on India's highly-regarded batsmen and without a single member of England's 2005 Ashes-winning attack.

Premier fast bowler Steve Harmison has already been ruled out of the entire series after undergoing a hernia operation.

Moores, who is also without Andrew Flintoff and long-term absentee Simon Jones, could have to field three of James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom and the uncapped Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett in his seam attack.

The England boss, meanwhile, has insisted that no "misjudgement" has been made over the handling of Harmison's hernia injury.

The Durham paceman could have been operated on nearly a month ago when his problem was first diagnosed during the fourth and final Test victory over West Indies at Chester-le-Street.

Instead of undergoing surgery immediately, which could have freed him up to play in the final Test at the Oval on August 9, England's medical staff decided to delay the operation.

And Moores said: "I don't think it was a misjudgement. We've got a good medical team put together and when he did it first time we thought that might be it, but then they looked at it again and it settled down.

"It was felt there was a good chance he could manage it and if he had got through that would have been great.

"Apparently he bowled very well at the Oval for Durham and that was fine but then unfortunately he did it fielding, playing at Sussex, and that's something we're just going to have to take on the chin."

Teams news for the first npower Test between England and India at Lord's:

England (from):

M P Vaughan (Yorkshire, capt), A N Cook (Essex), A J Strauss (Middlesex), K P Pietersen (Hampshire), P D Collingwood (Durham), I R Bell (Warwickshire), M J Prior (Sussex, wkt), S C Broad (Leicestershire), R J Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), J M Anderson (Lancashire), M S Panesar (Northamptonshire), C T Tremlett (Hampshire), M J Hoggard (Yorkshire).

India (from):

R Dravid (capt), K D Karthik, W Jaffer, S R Tendulkar, S C Ganguly, VVS Laxman, M S Dhoni (wkt), A Kumble, Z Khan, S Sreesanth, R P Singh, I Sharma, Y Singh.

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