India vs England: Virat Kohli to miss first ODI as Men in Blue opt to bowl first – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Star batter Virat Kohli missed out on the first ODI against England with a groin injury that he sustained during the third T20I on Sunday.

Rohit Sharma confirmed the playing XI after the toss saying, “Virat Kohli will miss the match. He has a slight niggle and we are keeping an eye on him. Shreyas Iyer will bat at number three.”

India have also roped in the latest T20I centurion Suryakumar Yadav in the starting XI and have opted for the two all-rounders in Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja.

“I think am really happy with how things went about in the T20Is. There was a slight opportunity to take the team across the line (in the third T20I), it was very close, but good learning for me going forward. It was important to take that positive road, I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I wanted to be fearless, really happy with that knock,” Suryakumar said before the start of the match to the broadcasters.

The fans, however, are happy about Shikhar Dhawan re-joining Rohit Sharma at the top of the order. The duo started to open together in England in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy and have been the fan-favourite opening pair since then.

While Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah will open the bowling for India, they have also continued with Prasidh Krishna who bowled excellently in the last ODI essay against West Indies. Bowling dominant all-rounder Shardul Thakur has been kept out.

England will boast of the return of Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root at the top of the order and Test captain Ben Stokes in the middle order.

“It’s great to welcome those guys back. They (Root, Bairstow, and Stokes) are few of the best players in the world,” said the new England Skipper Buttler at the toss.

Buttler will shift to the middle order from opening with the arrival of Bairstow.

While England have a strong batting line-up, their relatively new bowling line-up will be tested against a strong Indian batting line-up. Moeen Ali is the only spin option they have opted for in the starting XI.

Rohit won the toss and opted to bowl first looking at the overcast conditions.

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