India and England were involved in a three-match T20I series, which ended on Sunday (July 10) in Edgbaston, Birmingham. With an unassailable 2-0 lead over Jos Buttler & Co., Rohit Sharma-led Men in Blue lost the third and final T20I by 17 runs, in a high-scoring encounter, and will now face the hosts in the series opener of the three ODIs.
While India will look to bring their newly-found T20I aggressive approach in the 50-over format, it will be interesting to see how England respond to the 50-over format’s challenges sans Eoin Morgan. This will be the first time that the current world champions will enter the field in the shorter format without their sole World Cup-winning skipper and, hence, there will be eyes on England’s new captain Jos Buttler. Needless to say, they will still resort to their gung-ho approach, which has already come into play even in the purest format of the game.
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For India, there are fitness concerns regarding Virat Kohli, who is struggling to get back to his usual best. They will also miss the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was the Player-of-the-Series in the recently-concluded T20Is. India’s bowling line-up will go through a chance, from the T20Is, whereas England’s batting order will also be tweaked a bit. Thus, it makes for an interesting watch.
Match prediction for the 1st ODI in Kennington Oval, London: As far as the weather is concenred, it is expected to be a clear day. Batting first has been more successful at the venue, since 2017, in the format (with seven wins as opposed to six losses). Thus, expect anything over, or near, 300-plus contest with some advantage to the batting first side.
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