Alastair Cook and James Anderson are both set to re-engage their pivotal Test match presence in England’s one-day international cause.
Captain and linchpin pace bowler played necessarily telling roles in England’s recovery from 1-0 down to prevail 3-1 against India in their Test series.
Yet almost as soon as that deed was done, completed with an innings-and-244-run victory inside three days at The Oval, both major players were required to vouch for their readiness to take on the same tourists again in five impending ODIs.
Read more: England players buzzing after dominant display against India at The Oval
England are expected to name a squad of 14, led by Cook, on Monday afternoon - for a series which will start in Bristol a week later.
There was much conjecture during Cook’s mid-summer struggles that he simply was not the man to continue to captain England in the 50-over format - with a World Cup in the offing in Australia and New Zealand early next year.
But he is characteristically determined to do so and hopes Anderson remains fit enough - despite the rigours of five back-to-back Tests - to assist him.
England may well be without Anderson’s new-ball partner Stuart Broad, who is thought likely to take a break for surgery on his troublesome knee injury.
Whoever is in his team, though, Cook has made his intention clear.
“I haven’t sat down with the selectors or anything,” he said.
“(But) I hope to be massively involved.
“We’ve got a World Cup in seven months’ time.
“We put these whites away and focus on trying to win that World Cup - in conditions quite similar to here - and we’ve got to start that building process pretty much tomorrow morning.”
Cook will be aware England may think about prescribing a rest at some point for Anderson.
He added: “We’ll see what happens with Jimmy, physically, but the way he was bowling at 88mph today, he looked in fine fettle - and hasn’t bowled a huge amount of overs.
“So I hope he’ll be ready to play a full part in that as well.”
Anderson moved at The Oval to within three wickets of Ian Botham’s all-time record Test tally of 383.
Already his country’s leading wicket-taker across the formats, he believes he is in good shape to get hold of the white ball again.
“Yes, definitely,” said the 32-year-old.
“We were a bit worried coming into the series that five Tests in such a short period of time could be quite difficult for the bowlers to get through.
“But we’ve coped with that so it’s something for the medical staff to sit down and talk to whoever and decide whether I’m fit enough to play.”
Possible England ODI squad: AN Cook (Captain), AD Hales, IR Bell, JE Root, GS Ballance, EJG Morgan, RS Bopara, JC Buttler (wkt), CJ Jordan, JM Anderson, HF Gurney, JC Tredwell, BA Stokes, CR Woakes.
India fined for slow over-rate durign loss to England
India have been punished for a slow over-rate during their miserable fifth-Test loss to England.
The International Cricket Council has fined India on account of them being three overs short of their target at the end of the match when time allowances were taken into consideration.
The rules stipulate that players are fined 10 per cent of their match fees for every over they are behind, with the captain taking a double punishment. As such, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni loses 60 per cent of his fee with the other 10 players losing 30 per cent.
Dhoni - whose men lost the series 3-1 from being 1-0 up - will be suspended for one match should his side commit another over-rate offence in the next 12 months,
India accepted the ruling without appeal.
Follow our sports coverage on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
