Astle should be in contention for tour of India this year

Master New Zealand batsman Nathan Astle should be a contender for the side's October-November tour of India, after knee surgery last week.

Astle was operated on for a long-standing knee problem, and a more recent hernia, last week and while he will be sore for the next two or three weeks from the hernia operation, he is expected to begin a rehabilitation programme soon after that.

While the knee operation showed the expected degeneration in a tendon, as was seen in similar surgery experienced by Chris Cairns and Shayne O'Connor in recent seasons, because Astle was being treated as a batsman and not a bowler, his rehabilitation period should be quicker.

New Zealand Cricket's sports science medical co-ordinator Warren Frost said today that the surgery had revealed that it was correct for Astle to have had the surgery at this stage of his career.

The surgery had gone well and Astle would be resting up for the next few weeks before starting his recovery programme.