Preview: India vs England – 2nd ODI

First Published : 14 Jan 2013, 12:07
Last Modified : 14 Jan 2013, 12:07

By: Shirin Sadikot in Mumbai

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What

The second ODI of the five-match series between India and England

When

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Where

Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, Kochi

The Teams

When your biggest strength becomes the prime reason of your failure, it’s a worrying sign. India have always depended heavily on their batting to win limited-overs matches. Of late, however, most of their batsmen are going through a tumultuous relationship with form, which has cost the team dearly. For India to start winning again, at least a couple of their top-order batsmen have to start scoring big, consistently. While it may not be a bad idea to infuse some freshness in the batting order in form of Cheteshwar Pujara, it’s difficult to see MS Dhoni leaving anyone from the current line-up out. With the compulsion to play an extra bowler due to the new rules, Ravindra Jadeja is also likely to keep his place in the playing XI.

Winning in India seems to have become a habit for this England team; they’d want to stick to it. They surely have brought the confidence of the recent Test series win into the ODI leg of their Indian tour. What should give them all the more boost is that performances have begun to come from unlikely suspects like Samit Patel and James Tredwell. A collective effort like the one in the first ODI is what will take England ahead in their quest to win their first ODI series in India in 28 years.

Key Players

Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane gave India a good start in the first ODI with a 96-run opening stand. However, Rahane fell three runs short of his fifty and Gambhir departed soon after getting to his. At least one of the openers needs to bat big after settling in. In bowling, it’s time for Ishant Sharma and R Ashwin to lead the attack from the front. For starters, they need to tighten up their own game and be more disciplined.

James Tredwell seems to like having a bowl on the Indian wickets. He has four-wicket hauls in both the ODIs he’s played here – one of them coming on the Rajkot track, which is designed to give nightmares to bowlers. If the off-spinner continues in the same vein, he can do to India in ODIs what Greame Swann and Monty Panesar did in the Tests.

Trivia

• Alastair Cook is just 6 runs short of completing 1500 runs as captain. He will become the third England captain to do so, after Andrew Strauss (2367) and Nasser Hussain (1598).

• The loss at Rajkot was Dhoni’s first against England in 12 home games.

Stats

Venue Stats

Average first innings score at Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium: 

Overall - 271

Since 2000 - 263

Average second innings score at Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium: 

Overall - 237

Since 2000 – 231

 Result summary at Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium:

Team Stats

Head-to-head:

Last meeting between both sides at Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium:

Brief scores: India (238/6) beat England (237) by four wickets on April 6, 2006

 Form guide (most recent listed first):

India:  Lost, Won, Lost, Lost, Won (2 wins, 3 losses)

England:  Won, Lost, Won, Won, Lost (3 wins, 2 losses)

The Squads

India: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shami Ahmed, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja

England: Alastair Cook (capt), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Stuart Meaker, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes, Samit Patel