The English side has arrived in India to play in the five ODIs and a solitary T20I. Interestingly, England, who are coming off routing India at home, have gotten to India 10 days before the start of the series.
English captain Alastair Cook expressed his pleasant surprise at having so much time to acclimatize to the conditions and the pitches in the countries.
The English squad has quite a few surprises but is on the lines of what the selectors have been planning – pushing in the youngsters and affording breaks to the vital Test match players.
England ODI squad:
Alastair Cook (captain), Jonathan Bairstow, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Scott Borthwick, Tim Bresnan, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Stuart Meaker, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, Chris Woakes.
Bairstow punished India in the one game that he played back in India and got a place in the side, and he will be joined by Stuart Meaker, an uncapped medium-pacers and Scott Borthwick, a leg-spinner.
On the other hand, India have had to compulsorily rest a few of their senior men given their fitness issues. There will be Zaheer Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and Virender Sehwag but the biggest news is that they have dropped Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan’s form had deteriorated badly in recent times and the axing does not come as a surprise.
R Ashwin and uncapped leggie Rahul Sharma will take up the spin attack, while the pace bowling department has some really inexperienced guys as well – Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Sreenath Aravind to be led by the indefatigable Praveen Kumar.
India ODI squad for the first two ODIs:
M.S. Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, R. Ashwin, Ravinder Jadeja, Vinay Kumar, S. Aravind, Vinay Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwari, Praveen Kumar, A. Rahane and Varun Aaron.
England's tour of India 2011 Schedule
Oct 8, 2011:
0930 hours local time, Tour game, Hyderabad
Oct 11, 2011:
0930 hours local time, Tour game, Hyderabad
Oct 14, 2011:
1430 hours local (0900 hours GMT), 1st ODI: India v England, Hyderabad
Oct 17, 2011:
1430 hours local (0900 hours GMT), 2nd ODI: India v England, Delhi
Oct 20, 2011:
1430 hours local (0900 hours GMT), 3rd ODI: India v England, Mohali
Oct 23, 2011:
1430 hours local (0900 hours GMT), 4th ODI: India v England, Mumbai
Oct 25, 2011:
1430 hours local (0900 hours GMT), 5th ODI: India v England, Kolkata
Oct 29, 2011:
2000 hours local (1430 hours GMT), One-off T20I: India v England, Kolkata
