Jones Ruled Out

Bad news for English fans, with confirmation that pace man Simon Jones has been ruled out of the rest of England’s Test series in India due to a left knee niggle he picked up bowling in the nets at Nagpur on the day before the first Test.

Jones joins regular skipper Michael Vaughan on the tours casualty list with both men not expected to be fit in time for the seven one-day internationals.

Meanwhile coach Duncan Fletcher announced today that star all rounder Andrew Flintoff will remain as England captain for the rest of the tour. Fletcher was impressed with the way Flintoff controlled the young English team (not one player was over 30) in the first Test especially as the side contained three debutants (Pansear, Blackwell and Cook).

Fletcher was also pleased to announce that he had a full squad to pick from for Thursday’s second test in Mohali. Kevin Pietersen has been cleared of any serious problem after an x-ray on his elbow came back clean.