Speedster James Anderson is in doubt for England’s tri-series opener against Australia at the SCG as he battles to recover from a knee injury.

Anderson looked fit in his return to the side in their 216-run annihilation of ACT XI on Monday, but sat out Wednesday’s win over the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra.

One-day skipper Eoin Morgan said the decision was made to rest their spearhead to give him the best possible chance to play in Friday’s match.

“It was more managing his workload coming back from injury,” Morgan told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.

“We decided that he wouldn’t be able to play three games in a week – and obviously the most important game is tomorrow.

“So in order for him to be fit for selection, we needed to up his workload in the nets. And if he had have played yesterday he wouldn’t have pulled up that well.

“He will go through a full practice today and we’ll see how he pulls up tomorrow morning.”

Morgan said Anderson was the only injury concern heading into the one-day clash.

“Everybody else is, to my knowledge, at the moment fit for selection,” he added.

Morgan praised Ian Bell’s impressive 187-run knock against the PM’s XI – a 50-over record for England – and said it epitomised the ruthlessness his side needed to succeed.

Their first priority was to beat India and Australia in the tri-series as a confidence-booster heading into next month’s World Cup.

“It’ll be nice to be sitting here at the end of this series with some silverware and very confident in where we’re going as a side,” added Morgan.

“I know throughout this series it might throw up a couple of things because Australia can be a difficult place to tour, a difficult place to adapt to conditions, but I certainly think that we’re one of the sides that finds it a lot easier to adapt.

“They are conditions that suit our game and we proved that a bit yesterday.

“Mindset and method wise, we’re in a good place – particularly with our batting.”