Friday, September 11, 2009

Collingwood & Anderson given rest

Fourth one-day international: England v Australia
Venue: Lord's Date: 12 September Start time: 1015 BST
Coverage: Listen to Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 Longwave, 5 live sports extra, the Red Button and BBC Sport website. Text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobile phones. Also live on Sky Sports.

Paul Collingwood
Collingwood is England's second-most capped one-day international player

England will rest Paul Collingwood for the next three one-day internationals and James Anderson for the next two in their series against Australia.

England are 3-0 down in the seven-match series but with the Champions Trophy and Test series in South Africa to come this year the pair have been rested.

Neither Collingwood nor Anderson have missed an England game since February.

Graham Onions and Joe Denly could play in Saturday's game at Lord's and Stuart Broad and Adil Rashid may return.

Onions, who has yet to feature in a one-day international, was added to the squad ahead of the third match to bolster England's bowling options.

Kent opener Denly was named in the initial squad, but has yet to feature after injuring his knee while warming up by playing football prior to the first match in the series. All-rounder Broad has recovered from a minor neck injury, while promising Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid, dropped for the last two matches, could also return after England's poor display at the Rose Bowl.

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England fly out to South Africa on 21 September, meaning the only chance to combat fatigue amongst the players involved in the heavy schedule following the Ashes triumph is to rest them against world champions Australia.

Anderson will join up with the squad again for the second of two one-day internationals at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

Collingwood will return for England's final match of the campaign at Chester-le-Street next Sunday.

Meanwhile, out-of-form batsman Ravi Bopara feels he has a big part to play in the future of English cricket despite a horror run of form for his country this summer.

England's mediocre totals in the first three one-day internationals - 256, 210 and 228 - have been bettered each time by an Australia side set to be fortified by the return of captain Ricky Ponting for the remainder of the series.

Bopara's highest score in seven Ashes innings was 35, before he was dropped for the decider, and he is yet to hit a half-century in six one-day innings.

As England prepare for Saturday's must-win match against Australia, he said: "There is a lot to come from me yet.

"I know I can play, it is just a case of getting my game in order."

Bopara has not chalked up a half-century in one-day internationals since Kanpur last November, 14 matches ago.

He has three centuries to his name from three Test innings against West Indies, but that purple patch came sandwiched between his Ashes failures and an even rougher time in Sri Lanka in December 2007.

Bopara is not alone in struggling against Australia in the series.

Ravi Bopara
Bopara's summer began well but has petered out alarmingly

Matt Prior and Owais Shah have had even more problems and without Kevin Pietersen, England's batting stats in general make for sorry reading with the best career average coming from Eoin Morgan (35.17), who has only recently switched allegiance from Ireland.

But with the same batsmen named for the upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa, England need to arrest the downward spiral and Essex 24-year-old Bopara is determined to do exactly that.

"Personally I want to go out and get a big one and win games for England," he said.

"I don't want to get scores that just do enough to give England a chance to win, I want to go out and seal the win for England.

"That is my ambition and I am desperate to do that. Not over-desperate because that's when things can go wrong, but I want to be the main man for England."

For Australia, it is a case of working out who to leave out to bring back Ponting, with Rose Bowl century-maker Cameron White far from certain to keep his place. On grounds of form, Michael Hussey could be the man to take a rest.

England (from): Strauss (cap), Bopara, Prior (wk), Shah, Morgan, Wright, Bresnan, Broad, Rashid, Swann, Sidebottom, Denly, Onions.

Australia (from): Watson, Paine (wkt), Ponting (cap), White, Clarke, Hussey, Ferguson, Hopes, Johnson, Lee, Hauritz, Bracken, Hilfenhaus, Siddle, Voges.

ะพ 1:25 AM

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