Root handed debut (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)
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Root handed debut
6:31am Friday 11th January 2013 in National Sport News © Press Association 2013
Joe Root was handed his debut as England chose to bat first in the one-day international against India
England handed a debut to Yorkshire's Joe Root as they opted to strengthen the batting line-up for the first one-day international against India.
Having played five specialist bowlers in both warm-up matches, the tourists named just four for the series opener at Rajkot, with Samit Patel and Root on hand to share the remaining overs. The rest of the team was as expected, with Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Jade Dernbach the seam options.
Alastair Cook won the toss at the SCA Stadium, which is hosting its first international match, and chose to bat first on a wicket that looked to be full of runs.
India made the prolific Cheteshwar Pujara wait for his ODI debut.
The batsman, who is from Rajkot, scored a triple hundred in the Ranji Trophy on Thursday as his India team-mates trained but was overlooked as Ajinkya Rahane continued at opener and Suresh Raina was retained in the middle order.
Ashok Dinda was recalled in place of Shami Ahmed.
