quit England decided to fight with India
England will bat first against India in the third and deciding ODI at Lord’s. Home captain Harry Brooke, who won the toss, was matter-of-fact in his assessment that it was a “good surface” on which England could score big and put India under pressure. Just last month, the ICC reprimanded Lord’s for the “unsatisfactory” surface for the first Test in New Zealand. Both teams made changes ahead of this winner-take-all matchup. England made only one match when Saqib Mahmood did not play after the second ODI. He was replaced by Josh Tong, who made his debut in the format in the first match at Edgbaston. India, however, came away with three changes. Two of them were booked: Captain Shubman Gill said Jaspreet Bumrah was out of the game with an injury to his left knee, which was swollen after being hit on the field in Cardiff. Washington Sundar is unavailable due to injury after suffering a hamstring injury in the second ODI. Shivam Dube also missed the match due to tactical reasons. KL Rahul returns after missing the last match due to illness, while Arshdeep Singh and Prince Yadav make up the line-up. This gave India a very heavy feeling as the only player was Axar Patel.
“We wanted to play this pitch with four seamers,” Gill said, adding that he would have batted first. “We have seen that spinners do not offer as much in the middle overs as seamers.”
Victory for England would confirm just their eighth win from 22 against India in the 50-over bilateral series and ease some of the remaining pressure on head coach Brendon McCullum after he was sacked as Test coach last week.
For India, this match could mark the end of an era. During the second ODI, reports emerged that this could be Rohit Sharma’s last international appearance. Inspiring their first win at the Home of Cricket since 2004 and securing the series would be a fantastic way to exit the game.
England: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Jacob Bethell, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brooke (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Josh Tong, 11 Adil Rashid
India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill (capt), 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Ishan Kishan (wk), 6 KL Rahul, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Gurnur Brar, 9 Prince Yadav, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Prasidh Krishna