OdishaLIVE Bureau
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England host India in the final ODI match of the series today at Headingley
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The series is tied at 1-1 after England beat India in the 2nd ODI
India and England face off each other in the series decider at Headingley, Leeds at 5 PM IST. England come into this match with some momentum after beating India by 86 runs in the last match. While, India will look to bounce back and take notes on what went wrong in the last game.
FORM GUIDE
England batsmen took apart the Indian bowlers in the last match and would look to do the same in the 3rd ODI. Indian spinning duo Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal also took the beating despite being in tremendous form.
For England their main positive from the game would be Joe Root returning to form after his stunning ton at the Lord’s. England’s batting depth goes out till David Willey who bats at No.8 and played a valuable innings in the last match.
For India, their first three batsmen aren’t much of a concern with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli all looking in good form. Their main concern is their lower middle order batsmen. The last four batsmen just managed a total of 21 runs of 42 balls in the last match.
The middle order also needs to pick up some form with MS Dhoni being out of form for a while now. Another concern for India is their pace bowlers. The inability to bowl at the death has seemed to come back to haunt them as the pace bowlers were smashed all around the park in the last 10 overs. Umesh Yadav, Siddharth Kaul and Hardik Pandya gave away 62 runs in just 6 overs at the death.
TEAM NEWS
England opener Jason Roy suffered an injury in the little finger of the right hand while fielding and will face a late fitness test which will determine whether he’ll play in the match or not. James Vince has been called up to the squad as a back up and will take Roy’s place if he fails to play. Vince has not played an ODI for England since 2016.
As for India it is expected to play the same line up. Pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled in the nets ahead of the 2nd ODI but is unlikely to return in the lie up. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will remain in the line up, being in tremendous form, despite being ordinary in the last match.
MS Dhoni is also expected to be in the line up with the veteran looking out of form for a while now. The middle and lower-middle order might change a bit with Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer both being on the bench, looking to get in the line up.
KEY PLAYERS
JOE ROOT – The Englishman came back into life when he smashed a stunning 116 of 113 balls after being out of form for a long period. Root is one of those players who once gets going is hard to stop. He times every ball almost perfectly and the Indian bowlers might face a hard task of getting him out if he gets going.
KULDEEP YADAV – Since, the English batsmen are taking the Indian pacers for a beating, spinner Yadav is India’s greatest chance of taking wickets. Currently, he has been in scintillating form taking 5 wicket hauls for fun. England batsmen played him well in the last match but Kuldeep would be looking to get back in this game.
CONDITIONS
The weather forecast is almost clear for the day. Clouds are expected to form over the course of the match and this will help the seam bowlers. The pitch also offers the batsmen a little bit of hope but we’ll see that once the match starts. The temperature will be around 20 degrees during the game.
STATS AND TRIVIA
England have a good record at this venue, having won 19 of their last 30 ODIS.India last faced England in an ODI, at this venue back in 2014 and lost by 41 runs.
Virat Kohli is just 202 runs away from getting to 10,000 runs after MS Dhoni reached the milestone on Saturday and became the 4th Indian batsmen to do it.
Story: Raunaq Edit: Sriram Singh Rattan
