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By Sanjay Rajan
RAJKOT, India, Nov 13 (Reuters) - England fast bowler Stuart Broad recovered from a sore knee to be named in the playing eleven for Friday's opening one-day international against India.
Broad had been doubtful of playing after he pulled out of the tourists second warm-up match on Tuesday, boosting England after left-arm Ryan Sidebottom was ruled out due to an Achilles injury.
The tourists also picked pacemen James Anderson and Steve Harmison alongside all rounder Andrew Flintoff in a pace-oriented bowling attack for the first of the seven-match series.
"I think our bowling has been pretty special," skipper Kevin Pietersen told a news conference on Thursday.
"I think that's been our strength against South Africa," he said, referring to the 4-0 series win in September. "Certainly since Harmison and Flintoff have come back into the team, they've excelled."
England picked one specialist spinner Samit Patel with all rounder Ravi Bopara earning a recall, having last played in the first one-dayer against South Africa.
BATTING BLUES
Poor batting form remains England's big worry after they suffered a humiliating Stanford Twenty20 Challenge defeat in the Caribbean last month where they were bowled out for 99.
They were also skittled for 98 by a second-string Mumbai team to lose their second warm-up game on Tuesday.
"I think the guys will have a work a little bit harder," Pietersen said.
"I just think we lack competitive cricket, and hopefully we've learnt enough lessons in the last couple of weeks so that we can come out and fire on all cylinders tomorrow."
England won last year's home ODI series against India 4-3 after losing 5-1 in their previous series in India in 2006.
India will look to quickly adapt after completing a 2-0 test series victory over Australia four days ago.
"It's never easy when you are playing back to back international tournaments," skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said.
"In three days time to switch over from the last test series and get on with one-day cricket, it's quite tough, but as an international cricket team you will have to do it."
"Half the side does not play the test game. That's in a way good, some of them are fresh."
Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma was ruled out of the match due to an ankle injury while batsman Sachin Tendulkar has been rested for the first three matches.
The teams:
England: Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Kevin Pietersen (captain), Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Samit Patel, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steve Harmison.
India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, R.P. Singh, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan. (Editing by N.Ananthanarayanan)
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RAJKOT, India, Nov 13 (Reuters) - England fast bowler Stuart Broad recovered from a sore knee to be named in the playing eleven for Friday's opening one-day international against India.
Broad had been doubtful of playing after he pulled out of the tourists second warm-up match on Tuesday, boosting England after left-arm Ryan Sidebottom was ruled out due to an Achilles injury.
The tourists also picked pacemen James Anderson and Steve Harmison alongside all rounder Andrew Flintoff in a pace-oriented bowling attack for the first of the seven-match series.
"I think our bowling has been pretty special," skipper Kevin Pietersen told a news conference on Thursday.
"I think that's been our strength against South Africa," he said, referring to the 4-0 series win in September. "Certainly since Harmison and Flintoff have come back into the team, they've excelled."
England picked one specialist spinner Samit Patel with all rounder Ravi Bopara earning a recall, having last played in the first one-dayer against South Africa.
BATTING BLUES
Poor batting form remains England's big worry after they suffered a humiliating Stanford Twenty20 Challenge defeat in the Caribbean last month where they were bowled out for 99.
They were also skittled for 98 by a second-string Mumbai team to lose their second warm-up game on Tuesday.
"I think the guys will have a work a little bit harder," Pietersen said.
"I just think we lack competitive cricket, and hopefully we've learnt enough lessons in the last couple of weeks so that we can come out and fire on all cylinders tomorrow."
England won last year's home ODI series against India 4-3 after losing 5-1 in their previous series in India in 2006.
India will look to quickly adapt after completing a 2-0 test series victory over Australia four days ago.
"It's never easy when you are playing back to back international tournaments," skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said.
"In three days time to switch over from the last test series and get on with one-day cricket, it's quite tough, but as an international cricket team you will have to do it."
"Half the side does not play the test game. That's in a way good, some of them are fresh."
Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma was ruled out of the match due to an ankle injury while batsman Sachin Tendulkar has been rested for the first three matches.
The teams:
England: Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Kevin Pietersen (captain), Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Samit Patel, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steve Harmison.
India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, R.P. Singh, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan. (Editing by N.Ananthanarayanan)
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GyanIn is an India Centric Peer Production News Service. [Gyan = 'Knowledge' in Hindi].
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Covering Indian News, Entertainment, Bollywood, Videos, Music, Games, Cricket, Business, Technology etc. Browse, share and promote news centered around India that is important to you.
You can submit interesting links. Vote for other links in "Upcoming News" section. And you eventually decide what should be on the homepage of GyanIn.
Covering Indian News, Entertainment, Bollywood, Videos, Music, Games, Cricket, Business, Technology etc. Browse, share and promote news centered around India that is important to you.
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