Andrew Flintoff returned to India for part two of his quest to lead England to glory feeling refreshed after meeting son Corey for the first time and calling on the youthful additions on this tour to stake claims for World Cup places.

Flintoff, aged 28, was back in the sub-continent on Sunday night after a whistlestop trip to spend time with wife Rachael, their new baby boy and daughter Holly.

Having overcome the odds to beat India in the final Test match and draw the Test series last week, winning man-of-the-match and manof-the-series awards in the process, the stand-in captain for injured Michael Vaughan was in need of a rest.

Yet he believes the travelling to and fro - he left in the early hours of Thursday morning - has energised him, saying: "To get home to see the family was great, it was nice to get away from cricket for a few days and I feel I have come back refreshed and ready for the one-dayers.

"It was great to see my son for the first time, I have not missed any sleep because I slept all the way home and had a good night's sleep last night."

The last time England played here they won by five runs but that match is remembered for more controversial reasons after a pellet fired from an airgun in the crowd hit Flintoff on the back.

However, Flintoff played down any thoughts of trouble in an expected 40,000 crowd today, saying: "It was a small minority of the crowd and we have a lot of security with us," he said. "I think there are so many plus points to playing in a one-day series in India it is probably the wrong thing to dwell on.

"The opportunity to play in front of packed houses, full of knowledgeable cricket fans, is the thing to look forward to rather than worry about what happened a few years ago."

England have not won any of the ten overseas series against countries ranked in the top eight since Duncan Fletcher took over as coach. The most recent victory, in fact, was in 1992 in New Zealand.

With half-a-dozen regulars from the usual limited-overs squad absent here the portents of altering that statistic are not great. But Flintoff has called on the youthful influx of players on this tour to book their seats on the plane for next March's World Cup in the Caribbean.

He said: "The Test side has performed well over time and the one-day side has not done quite as well as it could have. We need to play to different situations, play to our strengths as individuals and come together as a team over seven matches.

"A series victory would be fantastic but it is no secret that there is a World Cup coming up and this is an opportunity for players to get more experience for us to get closer to our World Cup side. We need to find out about a few players and our team in general.

"In the Test series lads took the opportunity to show the strength, the character, the scrap which English cricket is all about.

"We know we have got players who can come in and perform who are just over 20 years of age and this is another chance."

England lost their warm-up match in Jaipur on Saturday while Flintoff was on baby duty and three others were rested following the exertions in Mumbai last week.

Meanwhile, India captain Rahul Dravid is adamant there will be no hangover from last week's Test trouncing.

India showed their ability to bounce back from disappointment by winning the one-day campaign in Pakistan earlier this year after a 1-0 reverse in the Tests and Dravid said: "I don't think these things are related too much for international sportsmen.

"What happened last week -when you play the amount of cricket we do - should be forgotten and the guys are professional enough to pick themselves up."

With Sachin Tendulkar ruled out of this series with a shoulder injury, India have been boosted by Virender Sehwag recovering from the back problem which hindered his performance in the third Test. Dravid said: "He went through all the exercises today, he batted in the nets, he fielded and did all we expected him to."