Visitors get batting boost with return of in-form Suryakumar Yadav and the experienced Dhawan for ODI series v England beginning in London today
India’s Suryakumar Yadav celebrates his T20I century (117 off 55 balls) against England in Nottingham on Sunday. Pics/AFP
The touring Indian team have been in England for almost a month but they arrived in the capital city of London for a game only on Monday. Much water has flown down the Thames since then—the country is looking forward to a new Prime Minister, India lost the fifth and final Test and with it a chance to win the series and won the T20I series 2-1 to redeem themselves.
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Kohli doubtful
In the midst of all this, their former captain Virat Kohli is a doubtful starter for today’s first ODI at The Oval as he has suffered a groin injury. There are chances he won’t make it for the second match at Lord’s (June 14) as well. Kohli was seeking that elusive magical innings to herald his return to form and had the backing of his skipper Rohit Sharma.
Shikhar Dhawan
“Form is fickle, but class is permanent,” said Rohit when asked if Kohli’s form was a big concern for the team think-tank. “Anybody can have a bad patch. There have been so many top-class players, who have had to go through such a phase. Ultimately, class prevails,” added Rohit.
Also Read: Last throw of the dice for Virat Kohli?
After Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant century (55-ball 117) in the third T20I match in Nottingham and the return of experienced opener Shikhar Dhawan, the Indian team can breathe a bit easy as they would have a cushion to let Kohli get into the groove here.
There is no doubt that India will go into the first two ODIs in London with their best XI. So, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal and Mohammed Shami will return to the side. Besides Dhawan, the other players who were not part of the T20I series, but are among the 17 for the ODIs are Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj and Shami. Thus, we can expect many changes in the XI that played in Nottingham.
Bairstow’s back
As for England, their Test skipper Ben Stokes and wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow are in the ODI squad after being rested for the recently-concluded T20I series. Also, the return of the in-form Joe Root augurs well for the hosts. Jos Buttler took over the mantle from Eoin Morgan, who led England to the 2019 World Cup title here, but quit thereafter.
Buttler has a two-fold responsibility. He first needs to ensure that he gets some big runs himself as he did for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League a couple of months ago, and secondly, he must ensure his team lives up to the world champions tag.
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