England returned to India today to complete the tour of the sub continent by playing 5 one day internationals. The last 5 one international series between the two countries played in India have been one sided affairs with England winning just 2 games out of the 15.
England have shown improvements in their one day game through the course of 2012. However they enter the most difficult environments against the world champions resting three of their best players. James Anderson, Graeme Swan and Jonathan Trott will not be making the trip as this is their scheduled rest period as allocated by the ECB.
I have no complaints with the ECBs new policy to rest and rotate players, England have their busiest calendar year this year with back to back series against New Zealand test and one day games. Then they have back to back home and away ashes series. It would be completely ridiculous to think that England's star players could play for the entire calendar year playing at their optimum levels without picking up an injury.
The stress and strains of international cricket make their affects on any cricketer. England want their best players fresh, injury free and playing their best as we take on Australia away from home to retain the Ashes at the end of the year.
This leaves the team in not to good a shape for this one day series in India. Missing our two best bowlers is going to make restricting India's batsmen on some flat pitches really difficult. We may not add to the number of games we have won in recent years in India. However I do not believe winning should be the number one goal of this series for England. Of course if would be nice and there is nothing I want more than to see England win.
This series gives England a great opportunity to develop some young players so that in a time when the international calendar continues to expand, England have the biggest and deepest squad for them to dominant international cricket in forth coming years.
This series provides a great opportunity for the likes of Danny Briggs to show he is an economical bowler at international level not just county. For Meaker and Woakes to join the line of next great English fast bowler and Bairstow to really push a claim to get back in the test team.
This one day series may not be measured by results but by performances either now or ones in the future through the experiences players gain.
Bowl prediction for tomorrow nights cotton bowl. Big game between Texas A&M and Oklahoma. I think the sooners take this in a tight one but a really good game of football.
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