India’s tour to the UK could not have gotten off to a worse start. They lost all six completed T20 Internationals (T20I) against Ireland and England and now will have to focus on the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series against a strong England side.

India captain Shubman Gill believes that the T20I results will not bother the team going into the first ODI at Edgbaston on July 14 (Tuesday)

“T20I results will not affect us. It’s a different format, different team and different goals. We have certain goals we want to achieve as a one-day team. It’s a different atmosphere. We were talking about the combinations – players who could be useful in South Africa [World Cup]. It’s possible that they are not in the team now, but could be part of it in the future,” Gill said ahead of the series opener.

Ro-KO & Bumrah back

The series marks the return of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, both of whom are fit and available for this series. Kohli missed the series against Afghanistan due to an injury. Rohit too had some injury concerns, but turned up for all three matches. Moreover, their premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah also returns after being rested for the T20Is. This could be his first ODI since the 2023 World Cup final.

“Virat [Kohli] and Rohit [Sharma] bhai have been the backbone of the team. Skill is very important. Repeatedly they have done so on a number of occasions. Boom [Bumrah] bhai, hopefully this good series, and hopefully we win,” Gill added.

No genuine pace-bowling all-rounder

Despite their returns, what India lack in their ranks is a seasoned pace-bowling all-rounder. With Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy unavailable due to injury, it will be interesting to see if they throw Shivam Dube, who played the last of his four ODIs two years ago, into the deep end. To add to India’s woes, their lower-order batting too has taken a hit in Harshit Rana’s absence.

India’s likely XI: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar/Shivan Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah

Bethell a long-term option as opener?

As far as England are concerned, they are yet to find a suitable opening partner for Ben Duckett. However, Jacob Bethell will open with the southpaw in the first game. England have great depth in their batting and bowling department. Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Sam Curran will take over the fast bowling responsibilities, while Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson and Will Jacks will have to share spin duties.

Harry Brook did well to lead the team to a win in the T20I series and take England to the top of the ICC T20I rankings, but his task in the ODIs may not be that simple.

England XI (Announced): Jacob Bethell, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Josh Tongue, Adil Rashid

England head coach Brendon McCullum may have lost his job as the head coach of the Test side, but he is determined to lad this England side to glory in white-ball cricket.

“I’ve got an immense amount of enthusiasm and energy for the white-ball job, and looking forward to getting us where we want to get to, which is to win trophies,” he said.

The focus for both sides, other than winning the series, is on the big prize – the ODI World Cup next year. Recently, there have been calls for ODIs being reduced to 40 overs, which Gill is not a fan of.

“Whenever I think of Word Cup growing up, I always thought of the 50-over World Cup. It is very prestigious, so I do not think that should be reduced to 40 overs,” he said in reply to The Crichub’s Sandipan Banerjee.

He also suggested an interesting idea to revive interest in the format.

“There used to be a lot of triangular series back then, and it would be fun if we could have series now. Two teams play in a different venue, as you won’t be playing against the same team constantly at different venues. So, to make the format interesting, we can have a triangular or maybe even quadrangular series, as it would be nice to play in it and would be fun to watch it as well.”

England have won just ONE series against India since 2013. India have emerged victorious in each of the last three series. Safe to say, it will be an uphill task for Brook and England against an Indian team filled with superstars.

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