KOLKATA, Oct 30: India paceman Javagal Srinath has said he would quit the game for good if a knee injury rules him out of the Test tour of Australia starting in three weeks.

“If I don’t go to Australia, I will retire from cricket,” the player said on Thursday. “That will be the end of it. I am keen to go if my knee is completely healed,” he told reporters. “But I am not 23 or 24.”

“The healing is slow but there is improvement,” Srinath, 33, said, adding that he would play in a local game next week to assess his knee.

The Australia tour, starting on Nov 25 and lasting up to the first week of February, will include four Tests and a one-day tri-series also featuring Zimbabwe.

Srinath, India’s second most successful fast bowler with 236 Test and 315 one-day victims, announced his retirement in June last year, but was persuaded to return by captain Saurav Ganguly to boost India’s World Cup hopes.

He guided young pacemen Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan and their performances helped India reach the final in South Africa, where they lost to champions Australia.

The knee injury sidelined the bowler for this month’s home test series against New Zealand and the one-day tri-series also involving Australia.

Left-arm Nehra is also struggling to regain fitness after undergoing ankle surgery for an injury he suffered at the World Cup.

He has been asked to train with the national squad, preparing for Saturday’s tri-series game against Australia in Bombay, to help the team management assess his recovery.—Reuters