Jones' tour place in balance

"It is very much 50-50 with him," the England physiotherapist Kirk Russell said. "We have an England camp on October 17 and 18 at Loughborough and he needs to be bowling then for him to be declared fit to tour Pakistan. If things continue to progress well, we will look to increase the amount of weight the ankle is bearing before Simon starts running again."

Jones, who took 18 wickets in the first four Test matches before his place in the XI which secured the Ashes was taken by the Durham all-rounder Paul Collingwood, is crucial to England's plans because of his ability to bowl reverse swing, an invaluable art on the subcontinent.

In India, the fracas surrounding Greg Chappell and Sourav Ganguly has escalated as several members of the team have stood up for their captain and turned against their coach.

Certain members of the team are apparently unhappy with Chappell's handling of matters. The spinner Harbhajan Singh accused Chappell of instilling "fear and insecurity" in the captain and accused him of "double standards".