Tough to balance between ODI series and World Cup: Fraser

England national selector Angus Fraser feels the upcoming five-match ODI series against India will be a tough one as the two teams will not just look to compete but also build up to the 2015 World Cup.
The first ODI will be played in Bristol on Monday.
"England lost to Sri Lanka earlier in the summer and India have just been hurt in the last three weeks, and both the teams will want to correct that," said Fraser.
"At the same time, they have to start preparations for the World Cup in Australia-New Zealand, and try to identify players who will be suited to the conditions there. So it is a tough balance between winning this series and getting ready for the World Cup, and both sides will be searching for it," he added.

England will only be playing ODIs in the run-up to the World Cup with an engagement against Sri Lanka in the winter. India will be playing West Indies at home and the two sides will then again clash in a tri-series in Australia leading to the quadrennial event.
For this series, the hosts have made a couple of changes from their ODI series loss to Sri Lanka, dropping Ravi Bopara, Michael Carberry and Tim Bresnan.

Alex Hales was drafted in to open alongside skipper Alastair Cook while Steve Finn was brought in for Stuart Broad who will miss the series owing to his long pending knee-surgery.

"By now, all sides have a nucleus of the players they want to take to the World Cup. There are always six-seven players who will be tried out in the coming months and they can at best fill the last three-four spots," said Fraser, who joined the selection panel in March this year, after Andy Flower stepped down as team-director.
"That tri-series in Australia will be a dress-rehearsal, a mini-World Cup before the real event, and I think all three sides will play their World Cup squads there, more or less," he added.
India too have a couple of 'young' additions to their squad with Sanju Samson and Karn Sharma part of the set-up. The selectors back home have also sent forth Dhawal Kulkarni and Mohit Sharma to try out their options ahead of the World Cup.