15 July: After facing humiliating whitewashes in Ireland and England in the T20I format, India won the first ODI of the three-match series in Birmingham against England, taking 1-0 lead.
India skipper Shubman Gill (80*, retired hurt) and all-rounders, Axar Patel (57*) and Washington Sundar (52*), scored unbeaten fifties to seal the game.
Earlier, England won the toss and elected to bat to post 258 all out in 47.5 overs. England star Joe Root remained unbeaten on 76*, all-rounder Dawson made gritty 68 and opening batter Ben Duckett made 43, but other top order batters, including skipper Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Bethell and Sam Curran fell cheaply.
Jasprit Bumrah bowled superbly, conceding only 31 runs in his 9 overs, taking an important wicket of Brook.
Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar took two wickets, each, while Axar was lucky to take three lower order wickets after conceding 61 runs in his first 9 overs.
For scoring a fifty and taking four wickets, Axar was declared player of the match.
Meanwhile, India’s star batters Virat Kohli (5) and Rohit Sharma (11) failed to make any impact with the bat, both falling cheaply.
India have recalled their super stars, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah, for the ODI series against England.
India’s ODI skipper Shubman Gill is leading the side with Shreyas Iyer as his deputy.
Bumrah, Arshdeep, Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar form India’s pace attack while Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar are the spin bowling options in the squad.
Alongside Axar Patel and Sundar, Shivam Dube are India’s allrounder options.
Nitish Kumar Reddy has been withdrawn from India squad and Hardik Pandya is out with injury.
India’s batting is rock solid with players like Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma at the top as opening batters, Virat Kohli at his usual one drop position, followed by rock solid Shreyas Iyer at four and the ever-reliable KL Rahul at number five.
There are players such as Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube in the squad as well.
On the other hand, Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Gus Atkinson and James Coles will feature in the ODI series for England.
Led by in-form Harry Brook, who earned player of the series award in the recently concluded T20I series versus India, England have Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell at the top, followed by Root as one drop, skipper Brook at four, Tom Banton at five, Buttler at six, and either Sam Curran or Will Jacks at seven.
Archer, Atkinson, Saqib Mahmood and Adil Rashid will be their main bowlers.
There is also an option to play Josh Tongue and Rehan Ahmed.
The first match of the 3-match ODI series was played on 14 July in Birmingham and the third and last match is scheduled for 19 July at Lord’s.
