India take on England in the first of their three match ODI series at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Sunday.
The visitors will look to avenge their loss in the Test series, where they were convincingly beaten 4-0.
On the other hand, India have a new limited overs captain in Virat Kohli who will be hoping to bring his Test success into the ODI series.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: January 15, 2017 (Sunday)
Time: 12:00 GST, 13:30 local time (IST), 08:00 GMT
Venue: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Star Sports 1, HD 1 (English), Star Sports 3, HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports 2 HD
Online streaming: hotstar.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE blog: Sport360 blog
TEAM NEWS, SQUAD, PREDICTED XI
INDIA SQUAD: Virat Kohli (c), MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.
Kohli taking over from MS Dhoni as India’s captain is the biggest talking point in the build-up to the first ODI. There is also a lot of debate on where Dhoni will bat and whether he will return to his old attacking ways.
Although there have been calls for him to bat at number four, one shouldn’t be surprised if the Ranchi man is pushed to five. After Ajinkya Rahane’s knock in the warm-up match on Thursday, it’s likely that the Mumbaikar will open the innings alongside Shikhar Dhawan.
That will push KL Rahul down to number four, who will be followed by Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh.
Having said that, don’t be surprised if one of Dhawan, Rahane, Rahul are left out and Dhoni bats at four with Kedar Jadhav coming into the lower middle-order.
PREDICTED INDIA XI: Dhawan, Rahane, Kohli (c), Rahul, Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj, Pandya, Jadeja, Ashwin, Umesh, Bumrah.
ENGLAND SQUAD: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Liam Plunkett.
The England XI is a tough one to predict. Unlike previous years, there is no dearth of limited overs talent in the English camp.
With Joe Root set to be available for the first ODI after becoming a dad, the big question will be which batsman is left out of the playing XI.
In the end, either Sam Billings or Jonny Bairstow are likely to miss out despite both showing good form in the warm-up matches.
In the bowling department, England are likely to go in with two spinners and three quicker bowlers. A huge advantage for the visitors is all eleven of their players are more than capable with the bat.
PREDICTED ENGLAND XI: Roy, Hales, Root, Morgan (c), Buttler, Bairstow, Stokes, Ali, Woakes, Rashid, Willey.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
INDIA: W L W L W
ENGLAND: W L W L W
MATCH PREDICTION
India to win, but expect it be a very close encounter.