Mulling over their middle-order and death-bowling woes, India would look to bounce back against hosts England in the series-deciding third One Day International eyeing their 10th successive series win on Tuesday.
The Indian bowlers leaked 82 runs in the death overs allowing England to post a match-winning 333-run target and wickets at regular intervals during the chase handed the hosts an 86-run victory at Lord’s.
After the top-order collapsed under 60 runs, Liam Plunkett ran through the Indian-middle order, who succumbed to the mounting run-rate, with figures of 4/46. Earlier, Joe Root’s run-a-ball 113, half-centuries from Eoin Morgan (53) and David Willey (50*) helped England to level the three-match series 1-1 on July 14.
Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Siddarth Kaul conceding 62-runs in six overs highlighted India’s dependence on Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the death overs. While Bumrah was ruled out with a broken thumb, Bhuvneshwar missed the first two ODIs due to a stiff back.
However, the latter was seen bowling at full-tilt in the nets in a video tweeted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). With conditions favouring swing bowling at Headingley, skipper Virat Kohli would look to field Bhuvneshwar, who would have to confirm his fitness after undergoing tests.
Look who’s having a go at the nets.#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/D7LMR2GVVt
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 16, 2018
It needs to be seen if Kohli would bring in Dinesh Karthik or Shreyas Iyer instead of KL Rahul and Suresh Raina, who failed to trouble the scores in the first two matches.
Dinesh Karthik had roared back into the limited-overs squad after his exploits in the Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh. Shreyas Iyer, on the other hand, showed glimpses of form when he recently led India A in a List-A tri-series in England.
(With Agency inputs)
Source: Zee News