Joe Root joins England squad

England was bolstered by the arrival of its top batsman Joe Root here in time for travelling with the squad tomorrow to Pune for the first of three ODIs on January 15.

Root, who had stayed back for a few days for the birth of his first child, is not playing the second warm-up game against an India A squad led by Ajinkya Rahane today.

England was bolstered by the arrival of its top batsman Joe Root here in time for travelling with the squad tomorrow to Pune for the first of three ODIs on January 15.

“Joe Root has arrived. He is at the ground (Brabourne Stadium),” the team’s media manager.

Root, who had stayed back for a few days for the birth of his first child, is not playing the second warm-up game against an India A squad led by Ajinkya Rahane today.

England will field 12 men, with eleven to bat, while the home side has added two players to the list of 12 picked by the national selectors here on January 6.

The two players who have been added to make it a 14-member squad are Sidharth Kaul, who was part of the India A team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the first warm-up game here two days ago but did not make the eleven, and Sujit Nayak.

The Cricket Board has not announced who had added these two names to the squad after it had been chosen earlier.

Meanwhile, England won the toss and decided to bat first. They had fielded first and successfully chased a target of 305 set by Dhoni’s men on January 10.

The visiting team have left out Sam Billings, Liam Dawson and Jake Ball, all of who played in the first game.