After losing the Test and T20 series, England will not take on India in the 50-over ODI series. It will take off at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune, on Tuesday, 23 March.
England lost the test series 3-1 to India after an impressive win in the first match. In the T20 series, the visitors were beaten by the Indian side 3-2. Now, the English men are eyeing to beat the home side to erase the disappointing memories from the tour, so far.
In the T20 World Cup year, the ODI series is getting lesser importance. So, England, as part of its preparation for the big tournament, has rested key players Joe Root and Chris Woakes, while Jofra Archer is out of the series due to an injury. As a result, the visitors are trying to use this opportunity to test its players like Reece Topley, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone.
MarkWood, Chris Jordan and Sam Curran will have to take more responsibility in the bowling department in the absence of Archer.
On the other side, India has a problem of plenty. With reserve players chipping in and making it count, Virat Kohli has lots of option. To start with, Shekhar Dhawan is likely to open the innings with Hitman Rohit Sharma. The former did not have a great T20 series and he has to fire with all cylinders even as Shubham Gill, Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal are waiting on the bench for an opportunity.
With Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, and Rishab Pant in the middle order, there is only one slot vacant for a batsman. Either Surya Kumar or Shreyas Iyer is expected to get the chance.
Krunal Pandya and Prasidh Krishna are part of the team. It is not sure whether they would get a chance in the playing 11 as Kohli is expected to go with – Bhuvanesh Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar.
Where to watch the match live online?
Hotstar will be streaming the match live online in Singapore, Canada, the US and India.
In Singapore, the match begins at 4.00 pm (1.30 pm IST) local timing. Follow this link to watch the match live.
The cricket fans in the US and Canada catch the action live in the below-mentioned links:
Watch the 1st ODI between India and England Live in the US and Canada.
Whereas the netizens can watch the match live in England on Channel 4. The cricket lovers in Africa can enjoy the match updates on Super Sports.
