Single spinner for England

England have made two changes to their line-up for the opening match of their one-day international series against India tomorrow.

Having chosen to field two spinners in both their warm-up matches and the Stanford 20/20 for 20 in Antigua, the tourists decided to rely on Samit Patel for their slow-bowling option with James Anderson being recalled to replace Graeme Swann.

Essex's Ravi Bopara is recalled for the first time since the opening match of the NatWest Series against South Africa as a replacement for Sussex all-rounder Luke Wright.

"Ravi has earned his recall," explained captain Kevin Pietersen. "He's been on the sidelines for a lot of the cricket we've played for the last however long.

"I'm a big Ravi Bopara fan on these wickets and we wanted to give him a go - I think he's so exciting.

Samit Patel will lead England's spin attack in the first of seven one-day international matches

"He's a very quick learner, he wants to learn and he's also willing to ask questions. He's really impressed me in the short term I've been captain and also when I've played alongside him as a player."

Bopara's call-up brings an end to a successive run of 14 consecutive one-day internationals for Wright, who Pietersen admitted had "done nothing wrong", but he believes Bopara is a better bet on Indian wickets.

Today's changes also signalled England's intent to stick with the same formula that secured a stunning 4-0 home success over South Africa at the end of last summer.

During that series, England excelled using four specialists seamers - Stuart Broad, Anderson, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff - alongside Patel's spin and supplemented by the medium pace of Wright and Paul Collingwood.

Bopara is likely to be asked to help out with his share of bowling, although England's plans have been boosted by Broad successfully coming through a fitness test this morning on a sore knee that forced him to be rested for Tuesday's defeat by a Mumbai XI.

Coach Peter Moores believes England’s freshness will be an advantage in the seven-match one-day series.

Several of India’s one-day side were involved in the gruelling Test series victory against Australia, which only finished on Monday, while most of the tourists have had a long break since the end of the international summer.

England's hopes of success have been boosted by India's decision to rest Sachin Tendulkar for the first three matches of the series while key seamer Ishant Sharma, who won man of the series against Australia, is out of the first ODI with an ankle problem.

Ravi Bopara is set to play in his first ODI since the opening game of the NatWest Series

"India will be very buoyant and very up, but will they be able to get down quick enough to be able to deliver in Friday's game?" said Moores.

"There is also quite a big turnover in personnel and they have quite a few different players coming in. They've got the advantage there of top-flight players coming out of a tough series, so they're in that mode.

"But we've got the advantage that we're fresh and I think, though Tuesday was disappointing, it's not going to knock our confidence as a team.

"We're very confident as a one-day team, we have a clear formula of how we're going to play and we want to go and test it out in different conditions in India."

Meanwhile, Pietersen is looking forward to the challenge of facing India in front of their partisan fans.

"I think India plays its cricket tough, we play our cricket tough as do Australia and South Africa - nations play with pride and passion, which is fantastic," he said.

"It's lovely to come to India. We had a remarkable crowd outside our hotel when we arrived last night and they'd been there since 10.00 in the morning - it gives the guys a buzz and they love India.

"Cricket is a religion out here and they play passionate cricket and that's why we're here - to test ourselves in difficult conditions."

England team: IR Bell (Warwickshire), MJ Prior (Sussex, wkt), OA Shah (Middlesex), KP Pietersen (Hampshire, capt), A Flintoff (Lancashire), PD Collingwood (Durham), SR Patel (Nottinghamshire), RS Bopara (Essex), SC Broad (Nottinghamshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), SJ Harmison (Durham).