England won the toss and chose to bat vs India
They will be taking on an India side with two notable changes, including the return of Virat Kohli. He missed the first ODI after sustaining a niggle, but has been recalled in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal – a fact that was greeted with a huge roar by the spectators in Cuttack when it was announced at the toss.
Varun Chakravarthy, the scourge of England in their recent 4-1 defeat in the T20I series, is also back in India’s ranks, where he will be making his debut in the format in place of the left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, who has been rested.
Varun picked up 14 wickets at 9.85 in the T20Is, persistently bamboozling England’s batters with his tight-lined overspinning legbreaks. He was handed his cap by Ravindra Jadeja before the toss, and at 33 years and 164 days becomes the second oldest Indian to debut in ODIs, after Farokh Engineer (36y and 138d).
England, meanwhile, have made three changes, one of them enforced, after Jacob Bethell was ruled out with a left hamstring injury that could jeopardise his involvement in the forthcoming Champions Trophy. Tom Banton, who has been in fine form in the ILT20 2025, has been drafted in as cover, having not played ODI cricket since 2020.
Jamie Overton steps into Bethell’s allrounder role at No. 7, with England calling on two more of their fast bowling options, with Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood stepping in to replace Brydon Carse and Jofra Archer, who is rested after featuring in all six of England’s matches on the tour to date.
“We’re pushing in the right direction, need to play better for longer,” Buttler said at the toss. “We need to play the way we want to play, being committed and positive, but watchable as well.”
Rohit Sharma, India’s captain, said his team were ready to go again after a comprehensive display in the opening match. “It was a good performance overall, it’s about continuing the same performances and taking each game at a time,” he said. “The energy on the ground was superb from ball one.”
India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Varun Chakravarthy 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 Jamie Overton, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Mark Wood, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Saqib Mahmood
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
