The highly anticipated three-match ODI series between India and England will kick off from Thursday in Nottingham. After winning the T20 series by 2-1, the Indian team will lock horns with England with high confidence.
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India will look to reclaim their top spot in ODIs by whitewashing the current number one team England in the upcoming ODI series. Apart from ranking calculations, this series is a great chance for the Indian team to sort their bowling and batting combinations keeping 2019 world cup in mind.
“England is a very good team and is ranked no 1. It won”t be easy for us to come out and snatch a victory. We have to be at our best and hopefully, that will give us the result we want,” Rohit Sharma made it very clear that India is in no mood to take home team England lightly even though they won T20 series in an emphatic fashion.
Rohit Sharma will look to continue his remarkable form in ODIs as well whereas Shikhar Dhawan will be expected to join fireworks as his obvious opening partner.
An opening has never been a headache for but finding a good number 4 has been one problematic work for captain Kohli and management but with the coming of KL Rahul is the squad has provided stability to the middle order, Rahul looked in amazing form in T20 series and earlier in IPL season 11 as well.
There has been a lot of talks about whether skipper Kohli will demote himself to number 4 spot to make way for 26-year-old Rahul at number 3. Many experts feel that Kohli should continue to bat at number 3 since this has been his go-to position and he shouldn’t mess up with his form and position before world cup next year whereas on the other hand many also feel that sending Rahul at one down will settle down India’s headache for missing middle order batsman.
“Speaking of Rahul batting at 3 or 4, I don”t know where he”ll bat in ODIs. Certainly, he has been in great form. We have got to see tomorrow where he actually bats. It will either be No 3 or 4,” said Rohit Sharma in the pre-match conference ahead of first ODI.
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It is not too difficult to extract the fact from Rohit’s statement that management will take a final decision tomorrow about who is going to bat at no. 3 and 4 positions.
Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni are obvious choices for number 5 and 6 spots in lower order along with Hardik Pandya will be expected to give final flourish to Indian batting.
In the bowling department, Yuzvendra Chahal has certainly made his spot fixed in the team whereas Kuldeep Yadav on the other hand might just come back to the team after being dropped in the last t20 in Bristol.
There has been no confirmation about Bhuvi’s fitness yet but if he has recovered from his injury then he will be expected to join pacer Umesh Yadav for an opening spell or Kohli might play either Siddarth Kaul or Shardul Thakur in the team.
“Ultimately it”s a good marker to see where we”re at. India has been really strong in this format for a long time and is one of the best in the world.” Said Joe Root in the press conference.
Although India successfully notched up the T20 series against England there’s no doubt to the fact that England is the strong team to beat.
England will be looking to maintain their number one ODI ranking. They will be highly dependent on Buttler who has been in dream form since the start of IPL this year. He didn’t really face any problem against Indian spinners whereas most of the other batters did. England will keep their hopes high on Jason Roy, Joe Root and Morgan to take charge for their batting line up.
If we peep into India’s ODI run after Champions Trophy last year, then they have certainly played far more ODIs than England. India has won 21 out 27 ODIs since CT17 whereas England has not really got enough exposure to ODIs since Champions Trophy; they’ve played just 11 ODIs out of which they managed to win 9 ODIs. This series will provide both the teams a great chance to strengthen their batting and bowling combinations before the start of world cup next year.
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Though India has only won 2 out 5 matches they’ve played at Nottingham but the last time India went to England for ODI bilateral series, they did manage to beat England by 3-1 in 2014 tour. Indian fans will be expecting their team to continue the winning record this time as well.
– by Sakshi Kapoor
