England take on India in the second ODI of the three match series at Lord’s on Saturday from 1530 hrs (IST). The hosts will look to level series after a humiliating defeat in the first ODI against Virat Kohli’s side.
Kuldeep Yadav has been the true assassin of the English batting line up. He picked five wickets in the first T20 against Eoin Morgan’s troops and repeated the favour in first ODI by picking up six wickets at Nottingham on Thursday. The world number one side only had a day’s time to do their homework against the intriguing spinner. The only positive being that Lord’s dimensions are somewhat similar to that of Cardiff, where they managed to get better of the China man. One thing is for sure that it will be an enthralling contest between bat and ball at the ‘home of cricket’.
India on the other hand look favourites to clinch the ODI series just as they did in the shortest format of cricket. Though one thing is quite significant that the team that has guessed correct side of coin has gone onto win each encounter, be it T20’s or the one ODI played at Trent Bridge. So the toss is equally crucial in the quest to triumph at this legendary venue.
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India traditionally don’t tweak much with their winning combinations but if Bhuvneshwar Kumar is fit to go, he will comeback in the side in place of Siddarth Kaul, but only if he is 100% fit.
England experienced a horrendous fall of wickets failing to play the Indian spinners. They don’t have much of a bench strength to make needed changes. So they will be forced to stick with the same combination that lost by eight wickets in the first ODI.
England (Possible XI): Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett
India (Possible XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Siddarth Kaul