IND vs ENG, 2nd ODI: Virat Kohli & Co aim at 10th ODI series win at Lord's

Wrapping up the ODIs with a 2-0 unassailable will also close the gap between the two sides in the ICC rankings

A high-on-confidence India look set to wrap up another series on the UK tour unless England find a way to tackle the marauding Kuldeep Yadav when the two teams clash in the second and penultimate ODI at Lord's on Saturday. 

It is a short turn-around from the first ODI at Trent Bridge, as also from the T20I series that finished 2-1 in India's favour Sunday.

In conditions resembling those in Manchester (in terms of a dry pitch), the English batsmen failed to comprehend Kuldeep's wrist spin. Like at Old Trafford, he was also helped by the breeze blowing across the ground and gained drift, bamboozling the batsmen to pick his best figures in ODI cricket.

Unlike in the T20I series, England do not have the option of battling this phenomenon with a practice outing against the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn. With both teams travelling to London on Friday, there might not even be enough time to sit down for some video analysis. In that light, the English batsmen will have to contend mentally with how to play Yadav tomorrow.

On the other hand, it has been a poor ten days for Root, and England's prime batsman for the summer is looking bereft of any confidence. This was the third time in three innings that he was out to wrist spin, falling to googlies in the two T20Is he played. A sharp leg break did the job at Trent Bridge, in what is quickly becoming a problem for Root.

With the wrist spinners deployed in tandem, Morgan had admitted that batting against the new ball was their best chance to deny India. This could inspire a promotion for Buttler to number three in the next face-off.

It remains to be seen if the wicket at Lord's will have any green on the surface. The domestic T20 competition here in England began on July 4; so, word is that pitch at Lord's would reflect that never mind the green tops in Cardiff and Bristol.

India, meanwhile, are unbeaten in bilateral ODI series since the tour of Australia in January 2016. They have won nine successive contests thereafter, with the 2017 Champions Trophy the only tournament wherein they failed to return with a trophy.

Barring any unforeseen fitness issues, the same playing eleven could feature at Lord's. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was seen bowling at Trent Bridge ahead of the first ODI, albeit the team management might not want to rush him back in view of sterner challenges ahead.

Wrapping up the ODIs with a 2-0 unassailable will also close the gap between the two sides in the ICC rankings. More importantly, it will hand over bragging rights to India ahead of the five-Test series.

Teams:

INDIA: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shreyas Iyer, Siddarth Kaul, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

ENGLAND: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Jake Ball, Tom Curran, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Mark Wood.