England vs India, 3rd ODI - India Predicted XI

The first two matches turned out to be one-sided encounters. India thumped England in the series opener by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Kuldeep Yadav’s superlative bowling coupled with Rohit Sharma’s masterful knock turned out to be too hot to handle for the English team. In the second match, the Brits hit back with a thumping 86 run victory.

Joe Root’s 12th ODI century followed by some impressive bowling from the likes of Liam Plunkett and others made sure that England draw level. Ahead of the third match at Headingley in Leeds, the Men in Blue have their own set of problems and they would want to shed last match’s agony and take the field with a rejuvenated outlook. In our article, we take you through their probable eleven.

Openers: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan remain to be the openers. Rohit carried over his form from the final T20I in Bristol and notched his 18th ODI century at the Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Most importantly, he saw his team through to victory and hardly played a stroke out of anger. However, he couldn’t repeat his heroics at Lord’s as Mark Wood accounted for his wicket.

Shikhar Dhawan, after a disappointing T20I series, found form and scored in both ODIs, but couldn’t convert them. The left-hander historically has an impressive record in the 50-overs format on English soil and he would want to score big and help his team to a commanding position. From the Men in Blue’s perspective, both openers need to fire.

Middle-order: Virat Kohli (C), Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk)

The middle-order has some massive names and looks a formidable one. Virat Kohli has been a prolific run-scorer and the Men in Blue’s performance will mostly depend on the 29-year-old’s batting. Suresh Raina did a reasonable job with the willow at Lord’s and is likely to be retained in the lineup. MS Dhoni was a recipient of a significant amount of flak after his indifferent knock.

The veteran would be keen to play a match-winning knock and answer his critics appropriately. The management may want to give Dinesh Karthik an opportunity at the expense of KL Rahul, who has failed to strike form in the series. Karthik has played only one match in the UK tour and would love to be included for the deciding encounter.

All-rounder: Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya hasn’t been at his best in the ODI series, neither with the willow nor with the leather. In the first match, he couldn’t hit proper channels with the ball and was taken for quite a few runs. Albeit he nipped out Ben Stokes’ prized scalp in the previous match, he leaked runs at an economy of over seven and was unable to put a lid on the scoring rate.

Bowlers: Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal

In the bowling department, Siddarth Kaul may make way for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was deemed fit for the final encounter. Kaul has strained to make an impact and is yet to pick up a wicket in his ODI career. The Punjab-pacer also hasn’t been able to halt the run flow. Umesh Yadav, who has picked up three wickets in the two matches, is the other fast-bowler in the lineup.

A lot would depend on how England tackle the spin-twins of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Kuldeep is currently the leading wicket-taker in the series and Team India will hope for their trump card to weave his magic to guide the visiting team to glory. Chahal hasn’t been in the form like that of Kuldeep’s but has been decent enough to restrict the batsmen.

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