India won the toss and chose to bowl first against England
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01:45
Disappointed to be getting out for 70 or 80 – Roy
Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bowl first at Eden Gardens, as England’s hopes of securing a consolation victory in their three-match ODI series were dented by the prospect of defending another total against India’s turbo-charged batsmen.
“We haven’t played a complete game yet, our batting hasn’t been at its best and neither has the bowling,” said England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, as he confirmed two changes to the side that, on the back of his determined century at Cuttack, fell narrowly short of chasing a formidable 382 in the second match.
As expected, Sam Billings comes in at the top of the order as a replacement for Alex Hales, who has withdrawn from the tour with a fractured hand. Less anticipated, however, is the absence of Joe Root, who reported a niggle before the start of play and makes way in the middle order for Jonny Bairstow.
Once again, there is no place in England’s bowling attack for Adil Rashid, who misses consecutive white-ball fixtures for the first time since his return to the England team in 2015. India make one change at the top of the order, with Ajinkya Rahane stepping in for Shikhar Dhawan.
England’s return to the scene of their oh-so-near miss, in the World T20 final against West Indies last April, offers more pride than glory this time around but with another ICC trophy up for grabs in five months’ time, every 50-over fixture counts in the fine-tuning process for both sides. And perhaps with that in mind, it was an unusually grassy surface at Eden Gardens that greeted both teams. Hardly Edgbaston in June, but the conditions presented an early opportunity for India’s seam bowlers to come to the fore.
India 1 KL Rahul, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Jonny Bairstow, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 David Willey, 11 Jake Ball
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo