The tourists had been looking to use the four-day fixture with Worcestershire at New Road to play their batsmen back into form after the heavy defeat at the hands of England at Lord's.

The top five in the batting order for that game, including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and skipper Sourav Ganguly, have all been included in the India line-up.

But torrential overnight rain never relented and left umpires George Sharp and Richard Kettleborough with no option but to call off the opening day's play at 12.45pm.

The weather forecast is also unsettled for the remainder of the week in what is the only game that the Indians have before they travel to Trent Bridge for next week's Test.

To make matters worse, Worcestershire have no indoor practice facilities and the tourists had to be content with a fitness session in a city centre gymnasium.

Reddy said: "It is very frustrating. We were looking for a good game and some good practice. We were denied that before the first Test when we played at Southampton on a very bad wicket.

"We did not complain and played the game but now we are being denied cricket because of the bad weather.

"These county games are very important for the team and more important than having indoor nets - but there are no indoor nets here and the gym at the hotel where we are staying is not good. All these things are adding up to frustration.

"We know the games we are playing now are a lot different from the one-day series and we need to re-adjust to playing five-day cricket.

"We are capable of it and are slowly getting into rhythm. There were encouraging signs in the second innings at Lord's.

"We are thinking that the series is not over and we are thinking of making a fightback at Trent Bridge but this lack of preparation is hindering our hopes."