England cricket team. | (Credits: X)
With England under pressure after losing the T20I series against India 4-1, the tourists have had to make some tweaks to their squad ahead of the ODI series, beginning on February 6 in Nagpur. Keeper-batter Jamie Smith will miss at least the first two ODIs, while leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed will stay on for the 50-over series.
Rehan, who failed to get a game during the preceding 20-over series, was expected to fly home, will come in contention for the one-day series. Smith, meanwhile, has suffered a calf injury that forced him to leave the field during the third T20I against India in Rajkot. Jacob Bethell replaced him for the fifth and final T20I at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Although Joe Root has joined the squad, England’s options have been limited due to the injury to Smith. While Phil Salt and Ben Duckett look likely to bat at the top, skipper Jos Buttler, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone and Bethell are the candidates to slot in the middle-order.
Brendon McCullum urges braver gameplan against spin in ODIs:
Meanwhile, head coach Brendon McCullum reacted to the 4-1 T20I series defeat, claiming that England haven’t been proactive enough against the spinners. However, he equally credited Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi into forcing the tourists to make mistakes, with the former claiming 14 scalps. As quoted by The Guardian, he claimed:
“At times, we’ve been a touch tentative. We want to keep trying to apply pressure. Particularly when they’ve got such a good batting lineup, you don’t really have a time where you can just take time out of the game. Four or five years ago in T20 cricket it was like that, and I think we’ve seen it evolve so quickly that there is no dead time now. I think our guys are really good players of spin. We’ve probably not been at our best against them but credit goes to Chakaravarthy and [Ravi] Bishnoi as well.”
