Krunal Pandya scored an unbeaten fifty on his ODI debut as he helped India post a score of 317 after being sent into bat first. A partnership of 112 off 57 balls runs between Krunal Pandya (58*) and KL Rahul (62*) took India to that score. While Krunal struck the quickest fifty on ODI debut ever, Rahul found some of his lost form. England needs 318 runs to win the first match with a few injury concerns which happened during the course of the game.
Meanwhile, Krunal Pandya’s debut innings was praised all over on Twitter. Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar and batsman VVSLaxman hailed the effort of the left-handed all-rounder. Having already made his T20I debut for India in 2018, Krunal was added into the Indian ODI squad for the series against England.
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The Test veteran underlined that his father would have been exceptionally proud of Krunal. Laxman also said that it was an excellent gesture from coach Ravi Shastri and captain Virat Kohli to let his brother Hardik present Krunal his maiden ODI cap.
“His father would be super proud of his achievement. Krunal was very emotional when he was getting the cap. Hardik presented the cap to Krunal. That was an excellent gesture from Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri to allow Krunal’s brother to give him that cap,” Laxman said during the innings break.
Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar said that Krunal’s knock helped KL Rahul to ease into his innings. After a string of failures in the T20I series, Rahul finally scored runs and hit back form in the first game. Rahul also remained unbeaten at the end of the Indian innings which would have boosted his confidence.
Krunal Eased It For KL Rahul: Sunil Gavaskar
“At one stage, it looked like England would restrict India to 280 but the unbeaten partnership allowed India to get those extra runs. Krunal just eased it for KL Rahul,” Gavaskar said.
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