England batter Joe Root’s return to ODIs was a disappointing one as he continued his poor run against spinner Ravindra Jadeja during the first ODI at Nagpur on Thursday. During his 31-ball stay at the crease after England lost wicket of Phil Salt, Root’s scoring opportunities were restricted well by India. Root could score just one boundary against Kuldeep Yadav. He was trapped leg-before wicket by Jadeja, breaking a 44-run stand between skipper Jos Buttler and Root. Against Jadeja in 10 innings in ODIs, Root has scored 133 runs in 115 balls and has been dismissed four times.
Root was an ODI regular for England till the 2019, the year when they won the ICC Cricket World Cup for the first time ever. In recent years, he has become into a brilliant Test specialist batter. In 29 ODIs since 2020-start, he has scored 685 runs in 26 innings at an average of 28.54, with six half-centuries to his name. His best score is 86.
The veteran’s poor performances have taken a toll on his ODI stats. His batting average, which was 51.36 at the end of 2019, has worsened and reached 47.39. In 172 matches, he has scored 6,541 runs in 161 innings, with 16 centuries and 39 fifties. His best score is 133*.
Coming to the match, England won the toss and opted to bat first.
After an enthralling T20I series ended with a thumping 4-1 for the hosts, India and England will now shift their action to ODIs. The series will be the perfect opportunity for both sides to finalise their winning combination for the upcoming Champions Trophy.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Harshit Rana received their maiden caps before the toss, marking their ODI debuts for India.
India will be missing the presence of Virat Kohli, who had a knee problem last night.
Along with this, Rishabh Pant is also missing from the playing XI and in his absence KL Rahul will keep the wickets.
On the other hand, England’s squad is quite similar to the one that featured in the T20I series. The most notable change came with the inclusion of Joe Root in place of Jamie Overton.
England (Playing XI): Ben Duckett, Phil Salt, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (C), Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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