India vs England 3rd ODI: Virat Kohli and Co. set for series decider

Despite losing the second ODI, Virat Kohli's Team India still favourites to win the 50-over series; subject to changes in the XI after the Bairstow-Stokes carnage.

India skipper Virat Kohli and England batsman Jonny Bairstow greet each other after the second ODI.

The India-England ODI series is set for a mouth-watering decider at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium here on Sunday.

India will be keen on recovering from Friday’s defeat to register a clean sweep of sorts across formats; after emerging victorious in the Tests and T20Is.

The visiting side, on the other hand, will be desperate to not only justify its World champion status and maintain the No. 1 ranking in ODIs but also ensure that the tour ends with at least one trophy.

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The in-form opening combination of Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy, followed by a swashbuckling Ben Stokes at No. 3 will remain a threat for India.

England will be hoping for Mark Wood’s return. The speed gun was rested in the second ODI. Left-arm Reece Topley and Wood can be a potent pace combination, possibly at the cost of Tom Curran.

Spin concerns

Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya have conceded a whopping 283 runs off 35 overs combined, picking only one wicket.

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The duo’s inability to either pick wickets or contain the batsmen has put the pace trio under severe pressure. It will be interesting to see if the team management considers Yuzvendra Chahal or Washington Sundar or both. Kuldeep has appeared to be woefully short on confidence in both the outings and in a crunch game like Sunday, Chahal’s wicket-taking abilities should earn him a place in the XI.

If India bats first, it may have to modify its conventional approach of building an ODI innings. It will be a challenge to contain the swash-bang-clobber approach of England. Instead of shifting gears towards the end of an innings, the Indian batsmen will have to optimise the middle overs by taking chances with just four fielders allowed on the boundary line.

The teams (from):
 

India: Virat Kohli (Capt.), Rohit Sharma (Vice-capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T. Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Shardul Thakur.
 

England: Jos Buttler (Capt., wk), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Sam Billings (wk), Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, and Mark Wood.
 

Live on Star Sports 1 from 1.30 p.m.