England’s struggling one-day squad in India suffered a blow Wednesday when seamer Chris Woakes was ruled out of the rest of the tour with a thigh injury. Woakes, 22, did not play in the first two games of the five-match series, which India won, but was expected to be in contention for Thursday’s must-win third international in Mohali.
“Woakes has been ruled out of the remainder of England’s tour of India due to a left quadriceps strain,” the England Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement. “Woakes suffered the injury on Sunday during practice in Delhi and will now undertake a rehabilitation period that rules him out of the remaining three one-dayers against India.” Woakes has seven wickets from four one-day internationals, including a haul of 6-45 against Australia in Brisbane earlier this year.
Durham’s Graham Onions, who will replace Woakes, will join the squad in Mumbai ahead of the fourth one-dayer on October 23. England are also due to play a Twenty20 international in Kolkata on October 29 at the end of the one-day series.
England must play on flatter wickets also: Former captain Michael Vaughan says England must prepare flatter pitches at home if they are to improve their overseas record in one-day internationals. England have won their last five one-day series on home soil and seven of the last eight, But it’s a different story when they travel overseas with series defeats in three of their last six campaigns against full member nations – including 5-0 and 6-1 reverses to India and Australia – and they trail 2-0 after crushing defeats in the opening games of the ongoing five-match campaign in India. England have also endured disappointing World Cup campaigns in the Caribbean and sub-continent in which they failed to progress beyond the last eight. In this year’s event they were beaten by Ireland and Bangladesh and struggled en route to a tense victory over the Netherlands.
And Vaughan thinks green, seamer-friendly pitches in England are a key factor in the side’s overseas struggles in the shorter form. He told sportinglife.com: “In one-day cricket, they’ve got a lot still to learn. I think they’ve got the right ingredients, the right players available, they’ve just got to find a system that works away from home on the flatter wickets without the lateral movement you get in the UK. “They prepare green wickets in England; they get the ball swinging around, bouncing around and you just don’t get that away from home.
