Contrary to the popular speculations, the England-India contests have been pretty much lopsided. The teams have already played 5 games so far but not even a single game has given the cricketing world the entertainment they were expecting. Fortunately, for the second series in a row, the series will be decided in the last game.
For the second series in a row, England have come back from being bamboozled by Kuldeep Yadav to level things up. And while England would be hoping that the trend breaks and they win the ODIs unlike the T20Is, India would be looking to bounce back just like they did in the T20Is.
India needs to address quite a few issues before the series-decider. So far, there has been one common factor to all the wins they have registered in England. In all the three games, one of the top three scored a century – KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma at Old Trafford and Bristol in the T20Is, and Rohit in the first ODI. However, the middle-order has been far from being convincing.
In most of the games so far, the top-order did the bulk of scoring. As a result, the middle-order could not quite enough time. However, in the second ODI at Lord’s, the middle-order batsmen had the chance to prove themselves but they fared poorly. The likes of Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya had a day to forget as India lost the game by 86 runs.
Not only that, India would also expect their pacers to come to the party in the crucial game. Umesh Yadav, Siddharth Kaul and Pandya were all over the place at Lord’s. The Indian pacers, in fact, are yet to come up with any notable performance so far in England.
On the other hand, England had two big positives from the game. They handled Kuldeep Yadav quite well and their batting mainstay Joe Root roared back to form. Moreover, their bowlers also joined the party with a stunning effort by restricting India to a modest 236.
So before both the teams lock horns in the decider, here is a little preview:
When does the match start and how to watch it live
The third ODI will start at 12:30 pm local time, 5:00 pm IST.
Sony Six and Sony Ten 3 will provide live television coverage of the match in India. The live stream will be available on Sony Liv.
England vs India: 2nd ODI live stream and global TV Guide
Subcontinent: Sony Ten
UK: Sky Sports Main Event; Live streaming: Sky Go
US: Willow TV
Australia: Fox Sports
South Africa: SuperSport
Probable playing XI:
India:
Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.
England:
Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett