The India cricket team put on a dominant display in Nagpur. All bases were covered. But sometimes even that can be an issue. Team India won the first ODI despite their best batter, Virat Kohli, missing out. However, in Cuttack, he’ll be back. Vice-captain Shubman Gill confirmed that Kohli will feature in the India vs. England 2nd ODI.
Virat Kohli back, Shubman Gill confirmed
But that means someone has to sit out. Who that someone will be, that head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma have to decide. Kohli as has been the case almost 15 years, will bat one down. In Nagpur, Gill batted there and did exceedingly well, scoring a ‘player of the match’ worthy 87.
It’s safe to assume that Gill, who was the best batter in the first ODI and is also the vice-captain, won’t be dropped. The same goes for Kohli, who’s probably Team India’s greatest ODI batter and won’t warm the bench either unless injured.
Gill has been an opener in 43 of his 48 matches in ODIs. Ideally, he should be back there. But Yashasvi Jaiswal opened in Nagpur. If for some reason Gill continues at three, Kohli will have to move down. However, Shreyas Iyer played at number four and was the one who broke the game open with the bat. Gill and Kohli aren’t droppable, so naturally one of Jaiswal or Shreyas has to be.
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Jaiswal or Shreyas Iyer, who’ll be dropped in the India vs. England 2nd ODI
One mustn’t forget that Jaiswal was picked over Shreyas originally. The middle-order batter confirmed so after the match. Gambhir wants to maintain the right-left combination and has often fielded an XI that provides such balance. Even in the first ODI, Axar Patel was promoted over KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya to keep right-handed Gill company. This makes Jaiswal’s case strong.
But Jaiswal can’t bat anywhere else. He’s an outright opener. Shreyas, instead, can bat anywhere from number three to five. His record at number four is just exquisite. He’s the only batter with over 1000 runs, an average of over 50, and a strike rate of more than 100 at two down.
Shreyas has a proven track record; a case in point is his ODI World Cup 2023 campaign. Meanwhile, Jaiswal made his ODI debut yesterday. Of course, Shreyas scored a fifty in the last match. In talent, Jaiswal might pip Shreyas, but performance backs the latter over the former, and that too rather comfortably. However, the decision will be made depending on what Gambhir and Rohit Sharma have in plan.
India’s squad for England ODIs
Rohit Sharma (c), Ꮪhubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.
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