England vs India, ODIs: Things we learned from the three-match series

England gave a strong account of themselves in the three-match ODI series against India as they went on to clinch the trophy after a 2-1 victory. After being down 1-0, the Eoin Morgan-led side showed complete authority over the Indians in the remaining two matches in which they looked at sync in every department. Having said that, England has shown their credentials and could the front-runners in the ICC World Cup 2019 at home. The third game at Headingley, saw India being restricted to a paltry 256/8 before England took charge with Joe Root hitting a sublime unbeaten hundred to help the hosts seal the deal inside 45 overs. Prior to this India has won nine successive ODI series and were stopped by the number one side in the world this time around. India will be going back to the drawing room and have plenty to ponder upon in addressing the issues. The next ODI series for India ahead of the World Cup comes in 2019 where they face the Aussies twice at away and home respectively. England was a better side in this series and rightly deserved to win the trophy. Here are the things we learned from the three-match ODI series. Root gets runs in a crunch situation England batsman Joe Root hits out watched by MS Dhoni. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) The twin tons came at a crucial time for England Test skipper Joe Root. Prior to this, in eight innings he had managed a solitary fifty. This was Root’s second and third ton of 2018 and it could not have come at a better time. With the Test series next, Root will now be looking to get this form into the longest format of the game. If England is to do well in Test cricket, Root is needed to play a major hand. The successive hundreds might just help him to convert starts to big scores in Tests. Root was superb against Kuldeep Yadav and never allowed the wrist-arm spinner to settle down. After a failure in the first game, he came back strongly to define himself and got his side the victories. In the 2nd ODI, he smashed 113* and got England to a massive score. On Tuesday, he remained calm and added a valuable 186- run partnership with Morgan to get his side home. England bowlers come good collectively England team. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) After being belted for runs in the first ODI, the English bowlers did their homework well. At Lord’s and then at Headingley, they looked like an unstoppable force. The big factor for this was their collective approach and everybody handled their responsibility well. Mark Wood and David Willey led the way up front and got key wickets at the start. They were supported well by senior pacer Liam Plunkett. The trio finished with 11 wickets in these two victories. The bowler that needs a special mention is Adil Rashid, who bowled as per the situation. The wickets of Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina in the third game got England back into the game from which they never looked back. In the 2nd game too, he got the crucial wicket of Raina at a pivotal situation in India’s run-chase. Raina wastes his ODI chance After being drafted into the ODI squad post the success in T20Is this year, one thought it would augur well for the visitors. But Suresh Raina could not grab his chance. he was presented with the opportunity in both the 2nd and 3rd ODI to come at a time and handle the ship, but the experienced player could not materialize. The moment for Raina came in the at Lord’s when he did all the hard work and got to 46. He had added 80 runs with Virat Kohli and once the skipper fell, Raina needed to apply himself. But the southpaw tried to heave one across mid-wicket and was bowled by Adil Rashid. India was pegged back at 154/5 and never recovered to chase down a steep target. In the final game, England was smart enough to include a leg-slip and Raina offered a simple catch moments after he came to the crease. Rashid was the bowler once again. India’s middle-order needs work Suresh Raina. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) India’s middle-order failed miserably in the two matches they lost. With the top order doing a bulk of scoring since quite some time, the middle-order was exposed in the 2nd and 3rd match and they faltered. MS Dhoni ran out of partners in both games as his contributions did not make the difference for India. Hardik Pandya, Raina, Dinesh Karthik and KL Rahul did not apply themselves against the Englishmen, who bowled well in the middle overs. Besides Kohli, none of these players came out and supported their skipper. Kohli hit two impressive half-centuries and also bagged a 45 to lead India’s charge. India needs to fix their middle-order and back the players they go with rather than chopping and changing frequently.

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England vs India, ODIs: Things we learned from the three-match series

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