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India vs England, 3rd ODI at Kolkata: Likely XI for Virat Kohli and co.

"There is no pressure on us that the series has been won. But when you play international cricket, you want to win each and every match. One thing is that we will enjoy the match more because the pressure is not there." - Bhuvneshwar Kumar

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© IANS
© IANS

India, in all probability, boast of a strong squad, so much so that players of Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey’s class were forced to warm the bench in the first two ODIs. On the other hand, the third and final assignment against England at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on Sunday, will be their final 50-over assignment before ICC Champions Trophy 2017. However, India have a reputation of toying with their starting XI once they seal a series beforehand. And now that it is taken care of, we are likely to see few changes in the team composition. Here’s the likely XI for Virat Kohli and co.:

Top-order: India played without the services of their star opener Rohit Sharma due to injury, letting KL Rahul open with Shikhar Dhawan. No doubt that Rohit will be Kohli’s first choice for ICC’s flagship tournament, but neither Rahul nor Dhawan could go big guns and lay a strong foundation for the middle order. In other news, Dhawan was rushed to the hospital during India’s practice session. “He went to consult in the radiology department and was there for more than an hour,” a local official said.

Full cricket scorecard: India vs England, 3rd ODI

There were no further updates on the nature of Dhawan’s injury. Regardless, if Dhawan is declared fit, it would be interesting to see if India go for Rahane over Rahul. As a matter of fact, having bench strength such as this is a curse in disguise. In that case, Kohli may as well have a headache while calling the shots.

At No. 3 comes the captain himself, and King Kohli does what he does. His rare failure in the last match will only motivate him to add more milestones to his feather, at Kolkata.

Middle-order: Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, the good ol’ friends, took us down memory lane at Cuttack with their resounding 256-run stand. A Yuvraj hundred, a Dhoni hundred, and an India victory: the fans could not have asked for anything more.

Kedar Jadhav, supposedly India’s new finisher, had a great time in the Pune ODI. In front of his home crowd (especially when it featured his family), the diminutive batsmen bludgeoned 120 off 76 in the pursuit of a mammoth 351. He then followed it with a 10-ball 22 in the second ODI, and he now will be itching to get more runs under his belt on what is said to be a belter of a track at Eden Gardens.

Lower-order: If a team has power-hitters such as Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja in their armoury, it makes matters worse for the opposition. Both have a reputation of using the long handle to a blasting effect, and they did so in the last matches with distinction. While Pandya played an unbeaten 40-run knock at a crucial juncture, Jadeja left no stone unturned to show off his boundary-hitting skills.

If not these two, they have Ravichandran Ashwin to play his wristy flicks. Nonetheless, either Ashwin or Jadeja should make way for leg-spinner Amit Mishra, Man of the Series against New Zealand.

Bowlers: Mishra took 15 wickets at a staggering average of 14.33 in the absence of Ashwin and Jadeja in the five-ODI series, for the duo was rested ahead of a gruelling Test assignment against England. Yet again, though India will eventually lift the trophy, finding a spot for Mishra in the playing XI will be an uphill task for Kohli and team management.

India’s pace battery is sorted. Jasprit Bumrah may have gone for runs this series, he needs to spend more time in the middle to get his toe-crushing yorkers spot on.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who replaced the erratic Umesh Yadav in the last ODI, have only 63 runs off his 10-over quota in a game that saw batsmen taking bowlers to cleaners.

“There is no pressure on us that the series has been won. But when you play international cricket, you want to win each and every match. One thing is that we will enjoy the match more because the pressure is not there,” said Bhuvneshwar ahead of the last ODI.

Likely XI: KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan/Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli (c), Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja/Amit Mishra, Ravichandran Ashwin/Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah

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