The opening ODI match is expected to be a high-scoring game.
Virat Kohli (2L), Eoin Morgan (2R) (Photo: Twitter/@BCCI)
Virat Kohli invited Eoin Morgan-led England cricket team to bat first after winning the toss in the opening One Day International (ODI) match of three-match series on Thursday (12 July).
The first match is played at the Trent Bridge, Nottingham. It’s the same ground where England had scored historic 481 runs against Australia in the recently concluded five-match ODI series between the oldest cricket rivals.
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The opening ODI match is expected to be a high scoring game as eight of the top 20 ICC ODI-ranked batsman (Virat Kohli-1, Rohit Sharma-4, Joe Root-6, Shikhar Dhawan-10, Jonny Bairstow-11, MS Dhoni-14, Jos Buttler-16, Jason Roy-20) will be on the show.
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Though both England and India will play without the service of their best pace bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah and Chris Woakes, respectively — there is enough quality in the match with the ball too. The Men-in-Blue and the English team have faced each other in an ODI series in India last year when the hosts were victorious by 2-1.
After losing the toss, Eoin Morgan said, “We would have liked to chase. The wicket though still looks good. Unfortunate, Alex has done his side. Joe Root goes up to 3. Stokes at 5. Ben coming in has given us an extra option with the ball. Joe is hungry for runs. The standards that Joe has set for himself are very high.”
Virat Kohli said: “We are gonna bowl first now. It looks like a hard pitch and we have chased well so far. Our strengths are different. The two wrist spinners bowling 20 overs in the middle overs are out strengths. I don’t think any team are focussing on the rankings right now. In India, England gave us a tough time.”
Teams:
England (Playing XI): Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan(c), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w), Moeen Ali, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w), Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav
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