England struggle with injuries as a hectic Australian tour draws to a close
The England team is looking forward to the end of an arduous tour of Australia as they take on the hosts in the last match of the seven-match ODI series which they trail by a 1-5 margin.
While the tour started off with the landmark Ashes win, the last month or so has been a real tough one for Andrew Strauss’s men, who have been on the road since November and have barely three days to recuperate and recharge ahead of their World Cup campaign in the Subcontinent.
The England team has currently a long list of injured players who would be struggling to regain full fitness before the start of the premier ODI tournament.
The most serious concern is fast bowler Tim Bresnan, who sustained an injury in his lower calf in the first half of the ODI series.
England coach http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Flower-c44362 confirmed that he is a serious concern for the World Cup.
"Probably it's Bresnan considering the sight of his injury, just above his Achilles tendon in his lower calf," Flower said when pushed on who was struggling the most. "But he's not a man who has suffered injuries, well not many injuries, in the past and hopefully he will recover very quickly and be ready somewhere near the start."
The masters of the game are yet to win the tournament even once in 9 attempts. However, cricket pundits are giving the present team a great chance of settling old scores and finally winning a final, which England teams over the years have lost three times.
Flower hopes that his injured players would get back to full fitness before the start of the World Cup. On the other hand, he admitted that it was too soon to know if the players would be available for the tournament or not and that their situation was being monitored on a daily basis.
Flower also confirmed that the decision to send back all-rounder and T20 captain Paul Collingwood was taken as he had sustained an injury that ruled him out of the last ODI to be played at the WACA in Perth.
Collingwood, who had a tough run in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, was sent back with just four days of this tour remaining.
However, Flower is optimistic about his fitness and thinks that he is not a major injury worry for the team management.
"He should be alright. He's been sent home to get looked after back in England by the specialists, his lower back needs a scan and the right sort of treatment," Flower said. "The sooner he got home the better; he wouldn't have been available for this last game anyway. He's going to a very important member of our World Cup side so we needed to get him off home early."
Meanwhile, England will be hoping of winning the Perth game, which would give the score-line a better reading. They have been drubbed at certain stages of the series with the last match proving to be a massive disappointment.
The tourists had batted brilliantly to post their highest total in Australia scoring 333 runs, and Jonathan Trott posted his fourth century of the tour, yet at the end of the day the total was not enough as the confident hosts won with four balls to spare.
England are likely to field Liam Plunkett in the final match. The seamer was drafted in the team from the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 after a plethora of injuries which had jeopardized the chances of the tourists, who looked down and out in the ODI format despite their Ashes win.
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