England’s explosive style meets India’s irresistible talent at the batsman’s paradise of Trent Bridge in Nottingham in the first ODI of a three match series.
The bowlers may be less excited at the prospect of a day of fetching in the middle of a heat wave in the UK.
England have set world record scores in their last two ODI outings in Nottingham blasting 444/3 against Pakistan in 2016 before going bigger and reaching 481/6 against Australia in June.
India’s top order look in good touch, only Shreyas Iyer did not turn out in the T20I series, having started the tour strongly in the short format against Ireland and England.
Virat Kohli appears focused on hurting England with the bat and openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are an imposing force.
England have a few selection conundrums after the runs scored by Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow make them hard to drop to accommodate the return of Ben Stokes.
It is likely a bowler will give way, though it remains unclear if Stokes will be able to contribute ten overs.
The depth in both sides batting is truly awesome. Jos Buttler coming in at six for England is in the form of his life while India’s lower order sports the likes of MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya.
England will have to decide whether to go with an all-pace attack of David Willey, Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett or keep faith with the red hot leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
India’s options with the ball seem a bit more straightforward with the key to the series being whether spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal can translate their success in Twenty20s to ODI cricket.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar will continue to lead an attack bereft of Japrit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami but their loss is Umesh Yadav’s gain.
Umesh will want to make the most of this opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the World Cup squad in 2019.
Squads
England: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Mark Wood
India: Virat Kohli (c), Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Siddarth Kaul, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav
Overview
England v India
Trent Bridge, Nottingham
1st ODI
Thursday 12 July, 12:30pm local
