England elected to bat in the first ODI against India, after Jos Buttler won the toss in Nagpur for the opener of this three-match series.
The host’s entire top four has refreshed from the 4-1 success in the T20I series, while KL Rahul has won the race for wicketkeeping duties, beating Rishabh Pant to the gloves. Kuldeep Yadav returns, the left-arm wristspinner offering a world-class alternative to the fingerspin of Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, at a venue where the pitch and a vast outfield help slower bowlers. Mohammed Shami is the other pace bowler apart from Rana.
Buttler, playing in just his fourth ODI since the 2023 World Cup, welcomes back Joe Root, who features on an ODI team sheet for the first time since that disappointing title defence. He arrived in India last week following a successful SA20 stint with Paarl Royals.
Fast bowler Saqib Mahmood earns his third ODI cap in the last three years, joining a three-man pace attack of Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse, with Mark Wood prescribed rest. Along with Adil Rashid are the part-time spin options of Root, Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell.
Both teams will be looking to use this series to tune-up ahead of the Champions Trophy, particularly given lacklustre results at the start of this 50-over cycle. Since the last World Cup, India have won two of six ODIs, while England boast a less flattering record of 4 out of 11.
India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Shubman Gill, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Axar Patel, 7 KL Rahul (wk), 8 Ravi Jadeja, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohammed Shami
England: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Phil Salt (wk), 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (capt), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Jacob Bethell, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Saqib Mahmood
