England vs India, 2nd ODI Preview: White nut on a string, India look to pocket series

At the moment, England simply do not have the bowlers to match the swing bowling prowess of India.

India keep momentum on their side

India carried on their good work of the T20 series, winning the first ODI in a canter. It was to their advantage that they won the toss and got to bowl first in muggy conditions.

This batch of white balls has been doing quite a lot in England this summer and the Indian bowlers have made far better use of it than their English counterparts. If it was the Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh show in the first T20I, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami combined to have England down at 59 for 7 within the first 15 overs in the 1st ODI.

Falling like nine pins

The freefall for England started with the wicket of Jason Roy who played on while trying to drive a full in singing delivery from Jasprit Bumrah. Joe Root faced just one more delivery before failing to keep a snorter from Bumrah down.

Ben Stokes inside edged to Rishabh Pant off Mohammad Shami. Liam Livingstone walked across his stumps as the ball sneaked under his bat and clattered into the stumps.

Livingstone seems to have made it a habit of getting bowled to Bumrah, both in international cricket and in the IPL. Of course, Bumrah is to be credited for the panache as he continues to produce peaches even in white ball cricket.

Moeen Ali looked good for his 18 ball 14 but was caught and bowled by Prasidh Krishna who look quite off colour. India would expect a little more out of the pace bowler who touched 150 kph in the IPL. He was not only bowling slowly but there wasn't enough rhythm in his run up and he would like to make ammends as soon as possible with several players waiting on the bench.

English bowling lacking X-factor

Chasing 111, the English bowlers were hell bent on having Rohit Sharma caught off a top edge against a short delivery in the manner in which his counterpart Jos Buttler was dismissed off Mohammed Shami. However, after a couple of miscues in the powerplay, Rohit Sharma just kept waiting for the short ball on the back foot.

The exceptional player that he is off the hook and the pull, he put it to good use with 6 boundaries and 5 sixes in his 76 off just 58 deliveries which came at a strike rate of 131.03 and killed any chances that England had of getting back into the match.

In essence, it was Bumrah who proved to be the difference between the two sides, picking up his career best figures, 6 wickets while giving away 19 runs off 7.2 overs.

More rest for Kohli?

Both teams won't make any changes to their playing XI just one match into the series. England would reinforce that they wouldn't like to dissect the failure too much and just move on, but how long can you move on if you keep losing white ball matches comprehensively, as was the case in the T20 Series as well?

It is quite clear that England are missing quality pace bowlers due to injury and desperately need an enforcer. India will wait till the last match to make any changes. Virat Kohli, who is nursing a groin injury, will probably sit this one out as well.

Predicted Playing XIs

England - Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Craig Overton, David Willey, Brydon Carse, Reece Topley

India - Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prasidh Krishna

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