INDIA LOOK TO SEAL 10TH SUCCESSFUL ODI SERIES TRIUMPH

Men in Blue look to seal their 10th successive one-day international series triumph

Their middle-order frailties laid bare in the previous match, India would be aiming to plug the loopholes in Tuesday’s deciding third and final ODI against England, where a win would fetch Virat Kohli’s men their 10th successive series triumph.

Smarting from their 86-run loss at the Lord’s after winning the first game in Nottingham by eight wickets, India have their task cut out.

Victory in London confirmed England’s spot as the No. 1 ODI side in the ICC Rankings. A win for India at Headlingley will only help close the gap and hand them the bragging rights before the Test series begins on August 1. India had previously won the T20I series 2-1.

The Men in Blue have been on a high-flying streak in bilateral ODI cricket. Going as far back as January 2016, when they last lost 4-1 in Australia, India have won every bilateral ODI series since, beating Zimbabwe, New Zealand (twice), England, West Indies, Sri Lanka (twice), Australia and South Africa, both home and away.

It is also another opportunity to ascertain their ODI supremacy over England, for India haven’t lost a bilateral contest to this opposition since 2011. Since that 3-0 loss here seven years ago, India have enjoyed the upper-hand, winning 10 out of 17 matches.

Considering England’s ascendancy in white-ball cricket since 2015, the equation has balanced out over the last two encounters. India won the closely-fought home series 2-1 in January

2017, and now the current contest will finish with the same score-line, either way. England have been found out to be a sterner prospect in ODIs than T20Is as their Lord’s victory underlined.

In turn, it also highlighted India’s glaring weaknesses in the 50-over format, which are shielded to a certain degree in T20 cricket.

While India’s spinners were in contention throughout, the pace attack lacked penetration, particularly in the death overs. 82 runs were conceded in the final eight overs at Lord’s, with Umesh Yadav, Siddarth Kaul and Hardik Pandya conceding 62 among them in six overs.

This series has marked the return of KL Rahul at number four since that Lankan tour. Lord’s was his first big test, considering the good run of form he has been in lately. But it came to nought, literally. India have Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer on the bench.

Despite his slow knock at Lord’s, it is nearly inconceivable that the team management will consider favouring Karthik ahead of Dhoni. While Dhoni has the backing of both Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, once again it underlines India’s dependence on the top-order trio of Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma.

For England meanwhile, not only is this series a chance to improve their record against India. But victory against arguably the toughest opposition they have faced recently will also approve plans ahead of the World Cup in a year’s time. With Joe Root back among runs and the remaining batsmen negotiating wrist spin to a greater degree.

Squads:

England: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Jake Ball, Liam Plunkett, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Mark Wood, James Vince.

India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shreyas Iyer, Siddarth Kaul, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Match starts at: 5pm IST