Cook hit by back injury again in triangular one-day series

ENGLAND Lions captain and Test opener Alastair Cook was again ruled out with back trouble yesterday as the team continued their triangular series with India A and West Indies A.

Ravi Bopara struck a superb 168 as the Lions reached the tri-series final with their third win out of three, a 124-run rout of West Indies A at Worcester. However, Cook, who was left out of the squad which has just beaten Australia in the NatWest Series, as well as the one named yesterday to face Bangladesh in three more one-day internationals.

His next England appointment is likely to be in the four-match npower Test series against Pakistan, which begins at Trent Bridge at the end of this month.

It is a worrying development, however, that Cook has once again succumbed to back trouble - having had to pull out of the one-day international leg of England's tour of South Africa for similar reasons last autumn.

England have yet to publicly pinpoint whether Cook's current problem is a recurrence of that injury, or a new one. Yorkshire batsman Andrew Gale, who led the Lions in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year and against India A, will continue to do so in Cook's absence.

England have also rested Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann for the series against Bangladesh starting on Thursday.

In yesterday's rout, Bopara struck 23 fours and two sixes in England's total of 345 in 49.1 overs and followed that by taking 4-43 as India A were all out for 221 in the 40th over.