England national selector Angus Fraser feels the upcoming five-match ODI series against India will be a tough one as the two teams will not just look to compete but also build up to the 2015 World Cup.
The first ODI will be played in Bristol on Monday. “England lost to Sri Lanka earlier in the summer and India have just been hurt in the last three weeks, and both the teams will want to correct that,” said Fraser.
“At the same time, they have to start preparations for the World Cup in Australia-New Zealand, and try to identify players who will be suited to the conditions there. So it is a tough balance between winning this series and getting ready for the World Cup, and both sides will be searching for it,” he added.
England will only be playing ODIs in the run-up to the World Cup with an engagement against Sri Lanka in the winter.
India will be playing the West Indies at home and the two sides will then again clash in a tri-series in Australia leading to the quadrennial event.
For this series, the host has made a couple of changes from its ODI series loss to Sri Lanka, dropping Ravi Bopara, Michael Carberry and Tim Bresnan.
Alex Hales was drafted in to open alongside skipper Alastair Cook while Steve Finn was brought in for Stuart Broad who will miss the series owing to his long pending knee surgery.
“By now, all sides have a nucleus of the players they want to take to the World Cup.
“There are always six-seven players who will be tried out in the coming months and they can at best fill the last three-four spots,” said Fraser, who joined the selection panel in March this year, after Andy Flower stepped down as team director.
Dress-rehearsal “That tri-series in Australia will be a dress-rehearsal, a mini World Cup before the real event, and I think all three sides will play their World Cup squads there, more or less,” he added.
India too has a couple of ‘young’ additions to its squad with Sanju Samson and Karn Sharma part of the set-up.
The selectors back home have also sent Dhawal Kulkarni and Mohit Sharma to England to try out their options ahead of the World Cup.
When asked which Indian players England will watch out for in the coming series, Fraser couldn’t really pin-point one name.
“You cannot look further than Virat Kohli. Ravindra Jadeja is another name that comes to mind. But Shikhar Dhawan should do well as he is a fantastic timer of the ball,” he said.
“The thing about this Indian side is that they have so many good players, fantastic players who have played a lot of one-day cricket and have performed to a high level.
“When you have that many good players, you want one of them to perform each game. India will be looking for the big names to come through and set an example for the rest of the squad.”
If that does happen, India will be able to turn around its tour after suffering embarrassment in the last three Tests at Southampton, Manchester and the Oval, squandering its 1-0 lead in the series gained at Lord’s.
