Alastair Cook predicts England will benefit from rotating players

Captain Alastair Cook expects England's rotation policy to pay dividends as they head to India missing key players.

England fly out for the five-match one-day series without James Anderson, Graeme Swann and Jonathan Trott.

Kevin Pietersen returns for the first time since retiring from one-day internationals in May, but will miss February's one-dayers in New Zealand.

"We are looking at workloads," said Cook. "The rotation of certain players at certain times will benefit England."

The England skipper added: "We have to look after every player, KP is no different."

The India one-day tour also marks the first time England will use a separate limited-overs coach, with Ashley Giles taking charge.

The move has been introduced to help team director Andy Flower cope with the demands of an ever-increasing international fixture list.

Giles has taken over control of the one-day international and Twenty20 sides from Flower, allowing him to focus on the Test team and 2013's home and away Ashes series against Australia.

Cook believes it is a positive step, comparing it to when the team had three captains for the three different forms of the game - Andrew Strauss in Tests, Cook in 50-over cricket and Stuart Broad in charge for the Twenty20 format.

"This is unknown territory," admitted Cook. "We haven't done it before. It is a bit like the three captains.

"That was new and I thought it worked really well because of the energy the captains brought to their side.

"I can see this working the same way on the coaching side.

"We are going to have to work very hard on the relationship. I am sure, as we get used to it, the relationship will improve. I have no worries about it working well."

England head to India having beaten the 50-over world champions only once in their last 18 one-day internationals in India dating back to 2002, losing the last three away series 5-1 (in 2006), 5-0 (in 2008) and 5-0 (in 2011).

They begin their tour with two warm-up games on Sunday and Tuesday, before they face India in the first one-day international in Rajkot on 11 January.

England ODI squad for India: Alastair Cook (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler (wk), Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Stuart Meaker, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.