Key events
Wicket! Duckett c Jaiswal b Harshit 32, England 77-2
What a catch this is. Duckett opens his shoulders and hoys Harshit over midwicket. Jaiswal, backpedalling furiously, lunges for it at full stretch and takes it. Debutant catches, debutant bowls. Brilliant.
9th over: England 75-1 (Duckett 31, Root 0). Hardik Pandya replaces Shami and gets Duckett thrashing and missing outside off. Some economy and control returns to India’s bowling, and is rewarded with a run out after a horrible mix-up ends Salt’s promising free-hitting innings. What a catastrophic shame for England.
“Morning Tom, morning everyone.” Morning Guy Hornsby. “I’ve actually been looking forward to the ODIs more than the T20s this month in India. Perhaps it’s the likely demise of 50 over cricket that’s drawing me in, but it’s much more of a narrative to me. I didn’t expect us to compete in the shorter format but I think this series could be fascinating, especially with the Champions Trophy looming. It still feels like we’re pretty short of spin options, (hi Liam Dawson) and we need a bit of variation on the pace battery, but really the batters need to fire or we’ll be toast on these pitches. It’s been good to see these two not feel the need to go nuts from ball one. But that Salt over was pretty enjoyable. As a Lancs member, I still hold out hope he’ll make it in the 50-over game. And I’m sure Jos Buttler is smiling to himself somewhere too.”
Wicket! Salt run out 43, England 75-1
Salt looks for an extra run that’s not there after pushing to the deep backward square boundary, the throw from Iyer comes in accurately, and Salt – confused and stranded – is gone.
8th over: England 71-0 (Salt 40, Duckett 30). A change of tone now, as Axar Patel’s left-arm spin is introduced – and Salt greets him with an emphatic straight drive for four. A single brings Duckett on strike. Then Duckett plays an absolute dream of a sweep, with the spin, for four along the ground. It’s followed by a dream of a reverse-sweep to the opposite boundary for four more
Talking of dreams, I dreamt last night I was at the Adelaide Oval in a lengthy beer queue at an Ashes Test at which England were getting drubbed. Next thing I knew, I was out in the middle, fielding at midwicket. No wonder England were getting drubbed. Hit me with your cricketing dreams.
7th over: England 56-0 (Salt 34, Duckett 21). For the first time on this tour, England are asking proper questions of India’s bowlers in a manner that must make McCullum and Buttler purr. Duckett picks up four more when he hacks beyond backward point and the spin on the ball befuddles Kuldeep on the boundary and eludes his scrambling attempt to retrieve. But it’s a better, tighter over.
5th over: England 52-0 (Salt 34, Duckett 17). Salt is on the charge. The first SIX of the innings come from a wild Salt top edge – England eh – that soars over the keeper, the backtracking fielders and the ropes. The next is a rather better shot, cracked through the off for four more. Then it’s SIX more as Salt advances to almost sweep a slower cutter from Harshit over backward square leg. Then four more with a thump on the onside. A brief dot ball respite is followed by another magnificently brutal SIX over long-on. England have scored 34 off their last eight balls.
5th over: England 26-0 (Salt 8, Duckett 17). A wide down legside starts Shami’s third over as Shami comes round the wicket to tuck Duckett up. It works, Duckett unable to find room against this line and length, until Duckett advances and hammers one through the covers, splitting the field, for four. Another four ensues but it was a chance as Duckett miscues one just over mid-on. It goes for four but it was a fine over.
4th over: England 17-0 (Salt 8, Duckett 9). A maiden. Harshit finds a better length against Salt and is rewarded with a few dots and then sends an awkward one into Salt’s mirdriff as the batter attempts to pull. That’ll smart a little. A really good comeback over from Harshit after going for 11 in his first. We’ve had two maidens in the first four overs
3rd over: England 17-0 (Salt 8, Duckett 9). England are up and running now. The first runs off Shami come from a beautiful orthodox cover drive all along the ground from Duckett for four. Two more to deep square leg follow. Then just as we were musing on what a nice true surface this is, one keeps low and befuddles Duckett, as does the subsequent ball, a jaffa off the seam that beats the batter all ends up.
2nd over: England 11-0 (Salt 8, Duckett 3). A new ball spell on debut for Harshit Rana, who starts with a lifting ripper that beats Duckett outside off. He showed enough in that contentious T20 spell for England to be wary. Duckett gets England under way with a square cut for three and Salt goes one better next ball, lashing a back of a length ball outside off to the cover boundary for four. Four more ensure when Salt goes high over midwicket. He doesn’t quite time it but it still goes to the boundary.
1st over: England 0-0 (Salt 0, Duckett 0). Mohammad Shami gets the new ball, two slips in, and finds some agreeable early swing. He has Salt playing and missing inside the line twice in succession in an ominously tight maiden, to which Salt was rightly circumspect.
The teams emerge into the afternoon sun in Nagpur for the anthems …
The teams
There’s ODI debuts for Yashavi Jaiswal, one of the most thrilling talents to emerge at Test level in the past year or so, and Harshit Rana, but Virat Kohli won’t play, some knee-knack emerging overnight.
India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Shubman Gill 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohammed Shami
England: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Phil Salt (wk), 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (capt), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Jacob Bethell, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Saqib Mahmood
England win the toss and bat
Jos Buttler calls correctly and opts to bat on a surface that is deemed pretty batting-friendly. “It’ll be a tough test and one we’re excited about. Rohit says he would have bowled first. “We have to come out and be aggressive with the ball at the start,” he says, declaring himself refreshed after some time off after the tough Australia tour. “We’ve hardly played this format since the World Cup so it’s important for us.”
And down in Sri Lanka, the hosts have made a steadier start than in the first Test against Australia, currently 94 for 2 after winning the toss. The Stakhanovite James Wallace, who’ll be along here later, is describing it now:
Some news, reflecting these times here:
And a slice of pre-match reading as Jonathan Liew tries to make sense of what the Hundred sell-off means:
Preamble
Morning/afternoon everyone. Here’s a (not much) fun fact: since the Hundred was introduced, the only teams England’s men have beaten in away ODI series are Bangladesh and the Netherlands. And if you think I’m gratuitously eliding these two separate facts to sledge-hammer home a point about the downgrading of domestic 50-over cricket and its effects, you’d be right. And look! Jos kind of agrees.
Right, having given that particular hobby horse of mine its periodic flogging, let’s turn our attention to what awaits us in Nagpur as a tweaked England side seek to put their 4-1 T20 shellacking behind them in the first ODI. The most talked-about tweak is, of course, the return to international white-ball duty of Joe Root for the first time in more than a year. And the former Test captain had such a blast at the SA20 recently that he has not ruled out putting himself up for Twenty20 selection again.
Right now though, Jos Buttler and his team must dust themselves down for the three-match series that starts today. Ominously, Varun Chalravarthy – the latest talent to step off the ever-productive Indian conveyor belt – has been added to the squad after tormenting England in the T20s with 14 wickets. Oh, and a recuperating Jasprit Bumrah is pencilled in to return for the third match. In the meantime India’s attack is set to include controversy’s Harshit Rana in a squad brimming with talent. India’s batting line-up meanwhile also welcomes back the old stagers Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, currently bigger on reputation than recent runs.
The hosts are undoubted favourites but England have a chance to make white-ball Bazball click and should be fired up. Go nowhere. Play starts 8am GMT; 1.30pm local time.