India were forced to make a change to their playing XI as wicketkeeper batsman KL Rahul couldn’t be part of the visitors’ line-up for the second ODI at Cardiff on Thursday on account of illness. As a result, he was replaced by Ishan Kishan.
England won the toss and decided to have a bowl at a venue where teams often do that, thanks to the bowling-friendly conditions there early on. India look to beat England today and take the three-game rubber with one match to go.
Rahul didn’t have a great outing with the bat in the first game at Edgbaston on Tuesday, which Shubman Gill’s men won comfortably as the visitors chased down 259 in the 46th over. Rahul’s innings lasted just three balls as he played on off the bowling of Josh Tongue. Behind the wicket, Rahul had a decent stint as he took two catches and effected one stump.
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At the toss, Gill said, “We would have bowled first as well. Yes, very happy and very pleased we had a near-perfect game last game. So hopefully we’re gonna have another good game. I think we had a good 6-7 overs in the powerplay, and then we were put under pressure at the end of the powerplay. But I think how we came back in the middle overs, fast bowlers taking wickets, it was just tremendous to see. We’ve got one change, KL is sick, so he misses out, and Ishan Kishan comes in.”
Indian fans will welcome a series win today
The last few weeks for Team India in the UK have been pretty bad. They lost two T20Is to minnows Ireland last month before losing four more in a row to England.
The Indians were pretty convincing in the first ODI. Jasprit Bumrah led the bowling department well, even though Axar Patel was the leading wicket-taker with four scalps. And then captain Shubman Gill (80), Washington Sundar (52 not out) and Patel (57 not out) shone with the bat to make it an easy chase for their team.
In light of the visitors’ recent miserable showing in T20Is, there would be nothing that would give Indian fans more pleasure than a series win today.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan(w), Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Gurnoor Brar, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna
England (Playing XI): Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook(c), Jos Buttler(w), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood
