London: The chatter ahead of the start of ODI series between England and India was all about thrilling cricket. But on Tuesday, at The Oval, India were dominating in their ten-wicket thrashing of England, with Jasprit Bumrah scything through the top-order and ended with 6-19, his best-ever show in ODIs.
With confidence high after a comprehensive show at The Oval, India will be targeting to seal the series quickly in the second ODI at Lord’s on Thursday, just like what they did in the preceding T20I series, which they eventually won 2-1.
For India, apart from Bumrah being at his menacing best in terms of skill and control on a greenish pitch offering seam, swing and extra bounce, Mohammed Shami and Prasidh Krishna provided him with ample support to bowl out England for just 110, after being 26-5 at one point.
With the bat, Rohit Sharma was at his glorious best, using his pulls and hooks to precision against the short-ball strategy from the England bowlers to remain unbeaten on 76, it allowed Shikhar Dhawan, his long-standing opening partner and playing his first ODI since February this year, to settle in and find his groove, which he did by hitting the winning boundary.
The availability of Virat Kohli for the second ODI still remains doubtful after he missed the first match due to a groin strain. On the other hand, England welcoming Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow into the ODI set-up under Jos Buttler’s first match as the skipper in this format did not as they would have liked and now face an uphill task of keeping the series alive on the third anniversary of their dramatic 2019 World Cup triumph at the very same venue.
While Stokes, Root, Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy fell for ducks, Bairstow could crawl his way to single digit. Buttler, though, hanged around to top-score with 30, being one of four batters alongside Moeen Ali, David Willey and Brydon Carse to reach double figures for England. With the ball, England were simply ineffective as they couldn’t separate Sharma and Dhawan pairing.
Lord’s as a venue provides the challenge for the bowlers to adapt quickly to the natural slope which runs diagonally across the pitch. For India, the opportunity is to adapt to conditions quickly and do an encore of performance at The Oval. For England, it is a chance to push the series into a decider at Manchester by sealing a win at Lord’s, which sounds a little tough after the shellacking received in the first game.
Squads
England: Jos Buttler (Captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Craig Overton, Matthew Parkinson, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley and David Willey
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh