Ind vs Eng: Can fresh legs revitalise Team India in ODIs?

Zee Media Bureau/Chaitan Papnai

New Delhi: After a shameful 3-1 Test series defeat at the hands of England, the Men in Blue will start their five match ODI series against the hosts from Monday. The first match is scheduled to take place at County Ground in Bristol.

The morale of the Indian team would be fairly low after the Test drubbing. Backbone of Indian batting line up, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma have failed to impress with the bat in the Test series. And if India want to give England a tough fight in the ODI series they want their prime batsmen to click.

Sharma, who has been opening with Dhawan in the limited over formats for quite some time now, played just one Test in the series. However, his opening partner was being dropped after his pathetic performance in the first three Tests, whereas, Kohli was the biggest disappointment of the series.

But in the ODIs, the presence of few limited over specialists like Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu might give the camp some freshness. In fact, in youngsters like Sanju Samson and Karan Sharma India have infused their squad with young legs. This was much needed after the tiring five-match long series.

Among the speedsters, Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Dhawal Kulkarni have joined Team India for the remainder of the tour. Sharma and Yadav can exploit the English conditions well, as the former has good control over the ball and the other has speed that can take most batsmen by surprise.

The ODIs and the lone T20 match would serve as a great chance for these youngsters to impress the selectors and skipper Dhoni to make their case for the upcoming ICC World Cup, scheduled to take place in April next year in Australia and New Zealand.