England [Images] face searing heat and repeated questioning over their poor one-day form going into Wednesday's sixth and penultimate one-dayer against India.

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The injury-depleted side won admiration after rallying to tie the test series 1-1, but they trail the seven-match one-day series 4-0 with Sunday's fifth game washed out.

England batsman Kevin Pietersen [Images] said on Tuesday that injuries were hampering the stability of the one-day team.

"In the Test team, we have people come in and fill specific roles," he told reporters. "The team hasn't changed around much."

"This is probably the first tour where we have had a lot of injuries," he said. "We went through the whole of Ashes last year with only one injury to (fast bowler) Simon Jones."

Injuries claimed captain Michael Vaughan [Images], Jones and spinner Ashley Giles before the India tests while fast bowler Steve Harmison broke down before the final match.

"There are some goals we set for ourselves before the tour. we haven't yet reached," Pietersen added.

"I hope in these two games we can get some of those hundreds, wickets, the stuff we wanted."

England's best one-day showing in the past few seasons was their ICC [Images] Champions Trophy [Images] final appearance at home in 2004, where they lost to West Indies [Images].

RESTING FLINTOFF

England coach Duncan Fletcher has said captain Andrew Flintoff [Images] could be rested in Jamshedpur, where the players will have to endure peak temperature of around 43 degrees Celsius.

Andrew Strauss [Images] will then lead the team.

"We want to give Freddie (Flintoff) a rest whenever we can, we saw this as an opportunity the other day and we will be monitoring it as this tour and the summer progresses," he was quoted as saying in the English Cricket Board (ECB) Web site on Monday.

"It is both mental and physical fatigue: the mental side does play a part and you have to look at both sides," he said. "Once Fred has got a ball in his hand or bat in hand he gives 100%."

England's one-day performance in India has been criticised by commentators and former players such as former captain Michael Artherton, who felt the world's second-ranked test side lacked commitment.

"England have always treated the one-day game as the poor relation of test cricket," he wrote in his newspaper column.

"The coaching, the talk, the tactics all centred on trying to produce test match batsmen," he said. "And so, by and large, England produced stiff-wristed, technically sound, low-intensity players."

Fletcher was more concerned about preserving his players for the November Ashes tour, hinting that some of them could be rested for the Champions Trophy to be played in India in October.

"We will look at what players need a rest before Australia [Images] and make plans accordingly," he said.

"We'll have to think about our attitude towards the Champions Trophy, whether we would come back with a player with a slight injury and whether there would be a risk involved.

"We want the World Cup side to play together as often as possible but we will have to take into consideration whether or not they have played too much cricket.

Hosted by West Indies, the World Cup will be played in March-April next year.