England opt to leave key fast bowler out, citing no injury fears.
England has confirmed they will not be picking key fast bowler Stuart Broad for their first two One-Day International games against Australia.
Broad will be a spectator at the MCG and the Gabba as England’s limited-over squad attempts to wrest back some pride after the 5-0 Ashes drubbing inflicted on the country’s Test stars.
The 27-year-old will also not take part in a scheduled tour game in Canberra against the Prime Minister’s XI, allowing him to recovering from his workload during the Ashes series.
While the England side did not have much to be happy with, Broad’s performance with the ball was, overall satisfactory, as he took a team-high 21 wickets at 27.5.
England will welcome in a slew of new players to the tour, and Eoin Morgan said it was the perfect chance for the young players to stake a claim for the squad for the 2015 World Cup.
“If you look at the last one-day series, the opportunities that came about, it was the rise of Ben Stokes and Boyd Rankin and Chris Jordan,” Morgan said.
“They’ve grabbed opportunities with both hands with the bat and ball, which is great to see really in preparation building for a World Cup in 2015.”
Morgan said while the opening game of the showpiece event might be 400 days away, the five-game series against Australia now, does have implications moving forward.
“The stuff that we build, the platform we build while we’re here is really important,” he said.
“It’s important that we learn from any mistakes and we build confidence down this side of the world.”
Australia claimed the last ODI series against England 2-1 in England last year.
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