With little improvement in his agonising condition in the last 10 days, India's opener Gautam Gambhir could be packing his bags to return home.

In what could be a big blow to the campaign of the defending world champions in the forthcoming one-day series, Gambhir is likely to suffer the fate of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag who came or joined the Indian squad and left without lending significantly to the team's cause.

India has been whitewashed 4-0 in the Test series; lost their number one Test rankings and is in danger of suffering a similar debilitating fate in the one-day series, starting with the first game in Chester-le-Street on September 3.

Gambhir had back-pedalled to catch a pull by Kevin Pietersen at mid-on on the second day of the final Test at the Oval on August 19 but tripped and fell on his head and subsequently suffered from a blurred vision.

He didn't open in both innings of the Oval Test and came down late in the order, contributing little by way of runs.