Kennington Oval (London): India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first against England in the first ODI of the three-match series, here on Tuesday.
Rohit confirmed that Virat Kohli is not playing this game due to injury and Shreyas Iyer will bat at No 3.
“We are going to bowl first. There is some grass cover and it’s overcast as well. I guess the sun will be out sometime. We want to have a score in front of us,” said the Indian skipper at the toss.
“Shami, Bumrah — those guys can swing the ball. It’s important to take wickets upfront and put brakes on the scoring. We understand the importance of playing overseas, we want to do well outside India. Today is no different. We have five batters, two all-rounders. Kohli is not playing this game, Shreyas will bat at 3,” he added.
On the other hand, England skipper Jos Buttler said that experienced Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, and Ben Stokes are back for the first ODI.
“We would have done the same thing, we would have bowled first. I am learning a lot about myself, and about my role. Looking forward to the ODI series, it has been a great learning experience,” said Buttler.
“It’s great to welcome those guys back. They (Root, Bairstow, Stokes) are a few of the best players in the world. There are a lot of selfless guys in the team, that will be exactly the same today,” he added.
Playing XI:
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
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
(IANS)
