It146;s the experience factor, feels Fletcher

The defeat in the first of the seven-match one-day series against India at the Kotla has opened a Pandora8217;s box of uncomfortable questions for England.

The defeat in the first of the seven-match one-day series against India at the Kotla has opened a Pandora8217;s box of uncomfortable questions for England. Talk about the heroics of a side full of greenhorns has been replaced by laments at the absence of experience.

8220;Our inexperience was caught napping,8221; Fletcher said. 8220;They still need to learn how to play in certain situations in ODIs.8221;

Captain Michael Vaughan, fast bowlers Simon Jones and Steve Harmison and spinner Ashley Giles are injured, while Marcus Trescothick pulled out of the tour for personal reasons.

England lag far behind other international teams in terms of playing 50-over matches. In fact, Andrew Flintoff will become only the 11th Englishman all time to win a 100th ODI cap when he leads the side out in the second one-day match at Faridabad tomorrow.

India, on the other hand, have as many as six players in the current squad itself, who have crossed the three-figure mark in one-day match appearances.

Fletcher is wary of over-reacting with wholesale changes. He cited England8217;s Ashes comeback last summer as an example of how a settled team is beneficial. 8220;From our point of view it making wholesale changes would be a sign of panic,8221; said Fletcher. 8220;One of the problems in the ODI unit, has been the huge turnover of players in the past three years,8221; he said. 8220;So we would like to give the guys a fair run here.8221;

He, however, advised his team to be more judicious with shot selection. Five English batsmen fell after attempting to play the sweep shot in Tuesday8217;s 39-run loss.

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He also urged Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen to show more maturity when batting together. 8220;At the end of the day they are going to be batting together on numerous occasions,8221; he said. 8220;They just got to learn how to bat together.8221;

Meanwhile, former England paceman Angus Fraser believes the tourists can redeem themselves by bringing in Matthew Hoggard. 8220;You cannot drop a bowler who is number five in the ICC Test ranking. Aussies would never drop Glenn McGrath or Brett Lee. Although it was batting that let them down in Delhi, the sheer presence of Hoggard will make India think,8221; said Fraser.

There is a ray of hope for England in the fact that India have only won once in five previous games at the Nahar Singh Stadium, failing to defend a score of 274-6 against Zimbabwe in their last appearance there four years ago.

YOUNGER IS WISER

The combined one-day experience of England team, till the Kotla ODI, is just 408 matches, less than half of India8217;s 1033 that too, sans Sachin Tendulkar8217;s 362. On the other hand, the English team8217;s average age is two years more than India8217;s 24.