England-India ODI Series 2008

Sidebottom out of ODI series

Ryan Sidebottom, the England fast bowler, has been ruled out of the remaining four matches of the one-day series against India with a side strain. Sidebottom has been afflicted by injury for much of 2008, sustaining an Achilles injury during England’s Stanford Super Series in Antigua before a long-standing side strain re-emerged at the start of this series.

England sent him for a scan earlier in the week whose results, though inconclusive, were not encouraging, but this latest diagnosis has confirmed a tear on his right side. The England Performance Squad arrived in Bangalore today, and Sidebottom will remain with the group in a bid to be fit for the forthcoming two-Test series which follows the ODIs. The first Test in Ahmedabad gets underway on December 11, which doesn’t leave him with much time in which to regain fitness.

“We know fast bowlers can pick up niggles,” Peter Moores said about the paceman. “Ryan’s given everything for 12-18 months, picked up those niggles and hopefully we can get him fit, strong and his body in the right shape to then carry on playing without injury for a decent period of time,” he said.

“If anything we’ll get more (from him) because he’s training very hard to be able to bowl,” explained Moores.

Tags: england, India, Ryan Sidebottom