London: England have won the toss and elected to bat first against India in the series-deciding third ODI at the Lord’s Cricket Ground on Sunday, with the visitors being dealt a major blow as premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah missed out due to knee swelling.
Bumrah was seen taking a fitness test ahead of the coin toss at Lord’s, but after failing it, he was ruled out of the clash. With Bumrah and Washington Sundar, who was ruled out due to hamstring strain, unavailable, India have brought in Prince Yadav and Arshdeep Singh.
Wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul is fit again after missing the second ODI in Cardiff due to illness and replaces Shivam Dube. “We were in a great position in Cardiff but then lost too many wickets in the middle overs so hopefully we can get good runs today.
“We’re not the one who rely on stats so much. We think he’s (Arshdeep) a great bowler, and we were looking for four seamers on this ground. We have seen in the middle overs, spinners don’t really offer much as compared to the fast bowlers,” said India skipper Shubman Gill.
England, meanwhile, have brought Josh Tongue in place of Saqib Mahmood in their playing eleven. “It looks a good surface so hopefully we can get runs on the board and put India under pressure.
“I thought we did really well in the middle overs (in the second ODI) to restrict India, while the way Joe Root batted set a great template. It would be beautiful to win and lift the trophy at the end of the day but we have to assess conditions and adapt,” he said.
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (captain), Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel, Gurnoor Brar, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, and Prasidh Krishna
England: Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook (captain), Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, and Josh Tongue
(IANS)
