Team India made a couple of changes to their playing XI as Virat Kohli returned to the fold for the second ODI against England in Cuttack on Sunday, February 9. Kohli missed out on the series opener due to a sore knee and hence, India handed an ODI debut to Yashasvi Jaiswal. With Kohli returning, Jaiswal was benched as Shreyas Iyer played a whirlwind knock in the Nagpur ODI, smashing a 30-ball half-century and became undroppable.
With Kohli replacing Jaiswal, vice-captain Shubman Gill would return to the top of the order with the trio of Kohli, Iyer and KL Rahul to follow at 3, 4 and 5 to follow. Kohli, however, wasn't the only change in India's playing XI with mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy being handed his ODI cap. Chakravarthy replaced Kuldeep Yadav in the side, who was rested for the second ODI. At 33 years 164 days, Chakravarthy became India's second-oldest ODI debutant after Farokh Engineer (36 years 138 days) in 1974.
England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to bat yet again. England also made a few changes to their line-up with Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood coming back into the side. Jamie Smith was still out with an injury and hence pace-bowling all-rounder replaced Jacob Bethell, who suffered a hamstring injury in the series opener. Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse were rested as England's injury concerns continue to rise. England have called up Tom Banton as a cover into the ODI squad from the third match onwards.
Both captains reckoned that it was a typical Indian wicket, black soil, a bit on the drier side and might end up slowing down in the second half. Hence, Buttler didn't hesitate in choosing to bat first and Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who was playing his 50th ODI leading the side, hoped that his side can restrict the visitors to a chasable score.
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy
England: Phil Salt(w), Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(c), Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Saqib Mahmood