Big picture: Variety the spice of both life and ODI bowling attacks
Rohit, having suffered months where nothing went right – maybe a ball rolling off his forward defensive and onto his stumps at the start of the season should’ve been a clue – looked up and saw four fast bowlers coming at him on a slow and low pitch and all four of them were virtually the same. Mark Wood had a little more pace. Saqib Mahmood swings it a bit but essentially they were all tall guys operating in the 130-140 kph in conditions that were never going to help them.
Form guide
India WWLLT (last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
England LLLWL
In the spotlight: Harshit Rana and Jos Buttler
Harshit Rana hated missing out on an international cap. He needed to be consoled when that kept happening, by his father, by his coach. Now though he’s an all-format player – Test, ODI and T20I debuts happening all in the space of four months – and with the Champions Trophy on the horizon his star might rise even higher. India are valuing his knack of picking up wickets over his tendency to leak runs and that is a trade-off worth pursuing, especially if it gives them a leg up in the middle overs.
In Cuttack, at 219 for 3 in the 39th over, England were actually doing well, until their captain’s attempt to clear mid-off didn’t happen. Buttler could well have been playing that sequence in his mind when he said, “we are making steps again in the right direction but not the perfect, complete performance with the bat.” Had that shot gone for four, which it has hundreds of times before, things could’ve been different. Buttler needs for them to be different. The last 50-over ICC event that took place in the subcontinent didn’t go so well for him or England.
h2>Team news: India to bring back Kuldeep?
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Harshit Rana, 11 Mohammed Shami
It is a dead rubber so England might not push to bring back some of the players they rested in the last game, unless they are fit and able, in which case they could really use them considering Paul Collingwood and Marcus Trescothick had to volunteer for sub fielder duties. Tom Banton might be in line for an ODI recall, but given he usually does his best work at the top of the order, what does it mean for the rest of the line-up?
England: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Phil Salt (wk), 3 Tom Banton, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jos Buttler (capt), 7 Liam Livingstone, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Saqib Mahmood/Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood
Pitch and conditions: Win toss, win match?
A hot, humid day is forecast for the game in Ahmedabad. Both England and India are painfully aware that the best chance of winning a white-ball game there is to chase.
Stats and trivia: Twin peaks waiting for India’s stars
Quotes
“We want to keep getting better as well. Nothing specific we want to work on but overall we want to keep getting better as a player and team. That is what we want to do. As long as guys are clear about what they are supposed to do, if they keep doing that not much to think about.”
India captain Rohit Sharma believes the pieces have fallen in place for the Champions Trophy
“He’s been someone we always rely on and can play that role to bat a lot of time, doesn’t face many dot balls, always scoring at a good rate. Very consistent player. Really important guy in our team.”England captain Jos Buttler is happy to have Joe Root back in the ODI mix
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
