Ambrose has been suffering from what long-serving team trainer and physiotherpist Waight called ``something like tennis elbow'' that has restricted him to a few half-pace deliveries in the nets over the past week. He did not bowl at the final practice session yesterday.

Captain Brian Lara said he and his fellow selectors would wait until this morning before making a final decision on whether Ambrose should play. But he made it plain that he expected he would.

It was a redundant observation. Ambrose's experience of 81 Tests and class that has earned him 341 wickets could not be missed in such a crucial match. Even if below peak fitness, he can be depended on to restrict scoring with his probing accuracy.

Waight said the problem was a trapped nerve in the ulnar region and guessed he might have sustained it doing push-ups.

``He did it three years ago but it soon went away,'' Waight said. ``It was very tender yesterday but it has improved a lot since then.

``We're treating it with ultra-sound, anti-inflamatory medication and icing and we're hopeful it will be even easier in the morning.''