Key events
India aren’t exactly flying in ODIs either by the way. They have lost three of their last six bilateral ODI series – to Sri Lanka and Australia away and New Zealand at home. Their team is packed with heavyweights – Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah, Gill and KL Rahul but they haven’t played a lot recently and there could be some rust on their usual gleam. Bumrah hasn’t played in this format since the World Cup in 2023!
TEAMS:
England have gone with a spin heavy attack. India have opted for pace.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Gurnoor Brar, Prasidh Krishna.
England: Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Josh Tongue, Adil Rashid
Jos Buttler is playing his 200th ODI. His family were with him in the huddle as Eoin Morgan presented him a commemorative cap. A lovely moment.
Buttler will bat down the order today as Jacob Bethell is going to open up. Jasprit Bumrah will be steaming in at him in about 20 minutes. Good luck, lad.
England win the toss and choose to BAT first
Ravi Shastri conducts the toss in customary sonic-booming fashion and Harry Brook gets the rub of the coin. He sounds a little unsure but confirms England will have first use of the wicket and look to get a commanding total on the board.
Shubman Gill says he would have bowled first anyway. So there.
England have gone to number one in the world in the T20 format, they’ve won 20 of 23 completed games under Harry Brook’s captaincy and deserve plenty of credit for that. It’s a different story in the 50 over stuff though, with just three wins in nine matches and a feeling that it has been the lesser loved cousin compared to Tests and T20s.
Preamble
James Wallace
Who likes fifty over cricket? C’mon, hands up, don’t be shy. What do you mean you don’t remember fifty over cricket? It’s the one in between the really long one and the really short one. It’s got elements of both, what’s not to like? Oh and there’s a World Cup in this exact format next year. Remember England won that one in 2019? You do! ‘The barest of margins!’ Yes! That was fantastic, wasn’t it? Well, erm, yes – they did stink the place out four years later and have an incredibly patchy record in the format in recent years but now the white ball stuff is Brendon’s sole focus and him and Harry have got them flying in the 20 over stuff so surely it is going to rub off or transfer into the fifty over squad. Surely. That’s just obvious. Its osmosis or something, right? Plus Rooty’s back! Love Rooty, he can do it all. Virat’s playing too? And Rohit? Whaaaat – Bumrah as well! ICC Ambassador, you’re spoiling us.
Welcome to the OBO of the first ODI between England and India from Edgbaston. It’s a three match series and should be a belter. There’s plenty to get stuck into, in more detail than the above paragraph too, would you believe.
Play starts at 11am BST. Shall we?
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