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England win toss, elect to bowl

Last updated on: March 28, 2006 09:59 IST

England captain Andrew Flintoff won the toss and elected to field in the first One-Day International against India at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Gautam Gambhir will open the Indian innings with Virender Sehwag, as regular opener Sachin Tendulkar had to miss the series because of a shoulder injury that required surgery.

The Uttar Pradesh trio of Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and R P Singh were also included in the eleven.

India opted for three pacers and a spinner in Harbhajan Singh.

England were again forced to field an inexperienced bowling attack in James Anderson, Kabir  Ali and Liam Plunkett.

Matthew Hoggard, who rocked the Indians in the Test series with a haul of 13 wickets in three Tests, was left out.

Flintoff's decision to bowl first hardly came as a surprise, as the pitch is expected to help the seamers in the first hour of play.

England beat India by 212 runs in the third Test at Mumbai to draw the series 1-1.

Teams:

India: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, and Rudra Pratap Singh.

England: Andrew Flintoff (captain), Andrew Strauss, Owais Shah, Matt Prior, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones, Ian Blackwell, Liam Plunkett, Kabir Ali and James Anderson.

Umpires: Asad Rauf and A V Jayaprakash.

TV Umpire: K Hariharan.

Match Referee: Roshan Mahanama.