India’s men’s cricket team has been forced to bring the winning combination against the England men’s cricket team in Cardiff. Designated wicket-keeper KL Rahul won’t take the field at Sophie Gardens due to sickness. Ishan Kishan, the backup keeper, takes his spot in the team and is slated to bat at number four, ahead of Shreyas Iyer.
Ishan Kishan comes in for KL Rahul
In the last match in Birmingham, Washington Sundar was promoted ahead of Rahul to ensure the English bowlers couldn’t plan against India’s right-handed batters. Keeping that in mind, we might see Shreyas moved down from his number four spot, and Kishan will keep the right-left combination going with Sundar, Axar Patel, and Shivam Dube to follow.
Returning to the match, England’s captain Harry Brook won the toss and opted to bowl first. The hosts have made two changes: Saqib Mahmood and Gus Atkinson replace Josh Tongue and Liam Dawson. India’s captain Shubman Gill also wanted to chase but didn’t mind the opportunity to bat first.
After a clinical performance, with five of six bowlers managing to pick up a wicket, and four of the seven batters managing to cross the 30-run mark, India weren’t expected to make any changes to their team for the India vs England 2nd ODI. But Rahul has been forced out. This will give a chance to test how Kishan responds to the opportunity.
Kishan had played all 3 matches against Afghanistan last month in Virat Kohli‘s absence and scored a rapid hundred. As a floater, who can bat anywhere from one to seven, and a keeper, the 27-year-old grants immense value to the team. In fact, he’s the reason behind Team India not opting for Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored an unbeaten hundred in his last ODI.
India Playing XI for 2nd England ODI
Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (vc), Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Gurnoor Brar, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna
Bench: KL Rahul (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Prince Yadav
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