India aiming to avert slide
Preview of the first one-day international between India and England in Rajkot

MS Dhoni could be feeling the heat if India don't do well against England • BCCI
Match facts
January 11, 2013Start time 1200 (0630 GMT)
Big Picture
There seems to be no bottom to the abyss India are hurtling into. It seems like only yesterday when they had to just turn up, and a home series, Test or ODI, was theirs. Now they have lost a series in each format in succession, to England and Pakistan. It also seems like only yesterday when India whitewashed England 5-0 in successive home bilateral ODI series. If you are gullible enough to bet on a similar result in this five-match ODI series, you might as well wager on a flood in water-scarce Saurashtra in January.Form guide
(Most recent first)India WLLWW
England LWWLW
In the spotlight
With Virender Sehwag dropped, Ajinkya Rahane should get to open the India innings along with Gautam Gambhir. The amount of time Rahane's spent on the bench can be gauged from his solitary ODI appearance in all of 2012. Even that came as an afterthought in Sri Lanka after the series had been won. Still, England are a side Rahane must be pretty familiar with. They were the opposition in the first 10 of his 13 ODIs and he's already played a few eye-catching knocks against them, including a 91 in late 2011 in Mohali.Team news
He may have made a double- and a triple-century in his previous two Ranji Trophy games, but it is unlikely that Cheteshwar Pujara will make his ODI debut in front of his hometown fans in Rajkot. Transition or not, the batting line-up looks far too settled at the moment. With the new ODI rules making it tough to manage with just four frontline bowlers, India could stick to the side that won the final one-dayer against Pakistan.Pitch and conditions
The Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Khandheri, outside Rajkot, is making its international debut. The city has hosted 11 ODIs at the Madhavrao Scindia ground owned by the municipal corporation. The grounds may be different but if it is Rajkot, indications point to bucket-loads of runs. The Challenger Trophy, India's premier domestic one-day competition, produced five totals of 300-plus in four games at the SCA stadium in late 2012. The most recent fixture here was the Ranji Trophy match between Saurashtra and Madhya Pradesh, a match the hosts needed to win to make the knockouts. Accordingly, a dry, slow, and low pitch was prepared, but don't expect anything of the sort for an ODI.Stats and trivia
Quotes
"We'll have to wait and watch. It's not something that's on my mind right now, before the start of an important series. We can't be thinking about that now."MS Dhoni on giving up the limited-overs captaincy
Alastair Cook believes his inexperienced side could cause a surprise
Abhishek Purohit is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo