Trescothick set to return home

Vice-captain Marcus Trescothick is returning home from the tour of hosts India © Getty Images

England vice-captain Marcus Trescothick is returning home from the tour of India for personal reasons.

Trescothick flew home on Saturday night following England’s eight-wicket defeat to an Indian Board President’s XI in Baroda.

Coach Duncan Fletcher said: “Marcus Trescothick is flying home to Heathrow tonight (Saturday) for a family reason and I hope his privacy is respected in this matter."

Skipper Michael Vaughan, who sat out here because of a recurrence of his long-standing knee injury, reflected: “It is not an ideal preparation for the Test match; we lost this game and did not quite play at our best; we lost such a good player, who, over the last 12 months has probably been our best batsman.

Michael Vaughan admits losing Trescothick is a huge blow for England © Getty Images

“For him to travel home is not ideal but it creates opportunities for others and we just have to learn from mistakes we have made in this game and go to Nagpur and start the Test match well.

“We need to improve going in there but we have been in similar positions before where we have lost the game before the first Test and gone on to have a good series.”

Vaughan had a cortisone injection in the joint three days ago and will have a rigorous fitness test on Monday when a decision on his participation or otherwise in Nagpur is likely.

“The knee is not bad, we will monitor on Monday and make a decision after that training session,” Vaughan, who underwent surgery in December to ease the problem, said.

“When I netted it was still only 36 hours after the injection. We would rather I rested it for another 48 hours to give it a little bit more time to settle down and give me a bit more chance of playing on Wednesday.

Batsman Kevin Pietersen receives treatment on his sore back © Getty Images

“It was always going to be a test when I got on the cricket pitch as to how it reacted. I was feeling good up until a week ago.”

With Trescothick out of the equation, Andrew Flintoff would captain England for the first time in Vaughan’s absence.

“If Michael is not available, Andrew will captain the side,” Fletcher confirmed.

There was better news regarding back-injury victims Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, with both scheduled to take a full part in training when the party get to Nagpur.

Essex batsman Alastair Cook and Lancashire seamer James Anderson have already been summoned from the England A tour in the Caribbean and are due to arrive in India on Sunday.