Nottingham: On a high after an impressive Twenty20 series win, India will eye another dominant performance against hosts England in a three-match ODI series.
With the ODI World Cup scheduled in the United Kingdom next year, the series will give Virat Kohli and Co. an ideal opportunity to get a feel of conditions they could encounter next year.
While India will be buoyed by their 2-1 T20 series win, England, the top ranked ODI team come into the series having crushed a below-par Australia 6-0 in their last bilateral engagement.
England have been one of the finest 50 over sides in recent times and India will have their task cut out against a batting line-up comprising Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes.
England have won 46 out of 69 ODIs since a disastrous 2015 World Cup. Their last bilateral series’ defeat came in India in January 2017, with only a one-off loss to Scotland in the interim.
The series will also enable the team management to mix and match combinations, keeping the World Cup in mind.
Right hand batsman K.L. Rahul’s stupendous form has been a happy headache and there is a possibility that the captain might come at no. 4 in order to give Rahul a chance to make optimum use of his current form.
Rahul scored a 70 against Ireland and followed it by an unbeaten 101 against England in the first T20.
With Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma being automatic selections at the top of the order, Rahul, who is also a specialist opener, may come in at no. 3, forcing Kohli to bat at no. 4.
The seasoned pair of Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya are expected to form the middle-order.
Yuzvendra Chahal is a certainty as lead wrist spinner and Kuldeep Yadav may just come back into the XI as the Trent Bridge.
For England, the series against Australia was a morale booster where they scored a world record total of 481 in one game.
Buttler, whose dream run has continued since the start of the Indian Premier League, would like to continue his form. England series useful World Cup rehearsal: Sharma India can use the three-match one day international series with England as a useful learning curve ahead of next year’s World Cup, says Rohit Sharma.
“It is very important, since the World Cup is going to be played in this part of the world,” said Sharma. “In terms of preparation it’s very important, in terms of our combinations and what our targets are going to be.
“We have seen England against Australia and they were really high scoring games, it’s gong to be crucial to see where we are as a team.
“In the last year or so we have played some good cricket, in and out of India, this tour brings another challenge for us.”
Sharma, who comes into the ODI series in fine fettle having scored an unbeaten 100 in India’s seven wicket T20 series clinching win over England last Sunday, says he and his teammates would not be intimidated even if the hosts post a high target.
“This team (India) likes chasing down targets,” said Sharma. Agencies Squads: India: Virat Kohli (capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul,
M.S. Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shreyas Iyer, Siddarth Kaul, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
England: Eoin Morgan (capt.), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Jake Ball, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Mark Wood.
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