Cricket

The ECB have announced that Kevin Pietersen will be rested for the upcoming ODI series with India but the batsman will play the T20 international this Wednesday. Durham’s Ben Stokes comes in for Pietersen for the five game series with the current World Champions.

ECB selector Geoff Miller emphasised that Pietersen is being rested and not dropped.

“The decision to omit Kevin Pietersen from the one-day squad is in line with our policy of sensibly managing player workloads and will give the opportunity to another batsmen to test himself batting at number four.”

Ben Stokes will replace the South African born player at number four for the series. Stokes made his debut yesterday in England’s victory in Dublin but he failed to impress with the bat and was tipped to miss out alongside James Taylor. Pietersen’s omission has given the chance for the 19 year old to impress but many would have selected Taylor over him. Taylor of Leicestershire, the captain of the England Lions, has scored recent centuries against Sri Lanka A and was being tipped for a spot but his failure in Dublin yesterday might have swayed the selectors to pick the Pietersen like batsman, Stokes.

Pietersen will play in the Twenty20 game next Wednesday before taking a break from the game. Stuart Broad will captain the side and will be hoping for a better result then his first game as captain when Sri Lanka demolished England in Bristol earlier in the summer. Somerset’s Jos Buttler is included as is Nottinghamshire’s Alex Hales for Wednesday’s game. Steve Finn and Jade Dernbach are both selected in the squad after impressing with the ball in Dublin on Thursday. Graeme Swann is also included in both squads.

The five game ODI series starts next week and England have named a separate squad for that. Most are included in both but Pietersen, Buttler and Hales drop out for the ODIs and in comes Bell, Cook and Trott, who was criticised for his slow scoring rate in Dublin.

Twenty20 squad: Stuart Broad (capt), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Ben Stokes, Graeme Swann

ODI squad: Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Ben Stokes, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott