England-India ODI Series 2008

Sachin rested for first 3 ODIs against England

Sachin Tendulkar has been rested for the first three ODIs of the seven-match series against England which begins on November 14 in Rajkot. Yusuf Pathan makes his return to the ODI squad as Praveen Kumar, Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan are the absentees from the team that played in the last ODI series against Sri Lanka.

Tendulkar had requested that he be rested, citing the heavy workload as the reason, and the selectors kept that in mind when they met in Nagpur on Wednesday evening to pick the team. He was expected to play this series after last featuring in the CB series in Australia back in April. A groin injury picked up during the tournament kept him away from the Kitply Cup held in Dhaka and the Asia Cup in Pakistan that followed.

The surprise inclusion in the 15-man squad is M Vijay who has been named in place of S Badrinath. Vijay was a eleventh-hour addition to the squad for the final Test against Australia on Tuesday evening as cover for the banned Gautam Gambhir after his impressive performances this season.
The other changes to the previous squad are Virender Sehwag, who missed the ODIs in Sri Lanka because of an ankle injury, and Ishant Sharma, who was rested from the series in Sri Lanka.

India Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh, Virat Kohli, M Vijay

Tags: england, India