Will India find a winning combination against England for the Champions Trophy?
After winning the T20 or ODI series, the Indian team will face England in the ICC Champions Trophy. Both series were won by the Indian team and showed their preparation for ICC Champions Trophy which already started on February 19. Both the teams played a 3- Match in the ODI series, the first match of which was played at Vidarbha Cricket Stadium in Nagpur, the second ODI in Cuttack and the third ODI played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The Indian team played only 3 ODIs against Sri Lanka last year, in which it lost 2–0. Although India won the T20 World Cup 2024 last year, the team’s performance in Test and ODI formats was not so good. The Indian team lost the Test series against New Zealand and Australia and was also out of the race for the WTC final. Indian captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed in the BGT 2024/25 series and could score only 73 and 190 runs respectively. Now both of them want to regain their lost form once again and hence the England series will prove to be very important for them. In this series, the Indian team will also have to find answers to some questions, in which it will be interesting to see who will open with Rohit. Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shubman Gill. Jasprit Bumrah is not part of the team against England, while Mohammed Shami has returned to the ODI team after the 2023 World Cup final. Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh will also want to give their best in the upcoming series. It will be very interesting to see how the Indian team management will make their combination for the first ODI. KL Rahul is the first choice as wicketkeeper or Rishabh Pant will get a chance. Shreyas Iyer bats at number 4 again. T20 series star Varun Chakraborty has been included in the ODI team, so, he may play the first ODI. He took a total of 14 wickets in the T20 series. Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav is present as the second option, whom Varun is seen supporting. Among the all-rounders, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja are part of this team.
On the other hand, England will also enter this series with the intention of practising and will look for the best possible combinations for the ICC's upcoming matches. Apart from Jos Buttler, no batsman could perform well in the T20 series. He was the highest scorer for his team with 146 runs. He would like to continue his form in ODIs as well. In the 2023 World Cup, England finished 7th in the points table and somehow got a ticket to the Champions Trophy. England last won an ODI series against India in 1984. The English team will want to change their record.