India vs England LIVE SCORE, 2nd ODI: Rohit livid at Rana for 4 overthrows, IND pacer can't look captain in the eye

India vs England LIVE SCORE, 2nd ODI: Harry Brook and Joe Root turned on the heat on India in steaming Cuttack in the middle overs. The pair saw spinners off so comprehensively that Rohit Sharma was forced to turn back to Harshit Rana. Brook initially looked set to change gears against the pace of Rana but ended up perishing to the very bowler thanks to a brilliant catch by Shubman Gill. His 66-run stand with Joe Root, along with a quickfire opening stand, has given England a good base and their captain Jos Buttler has now joined Root. ...Read More

England's openers gave them a fantastic start once again and it was debutant Varun Chakravarthy who finally gave India the breakthrough in the 11th over. Phil Salt went for a big shot and perished on 51 off 37 balls and his opening stand with Ben Duckett ended on 81 in just 65 balls. Duckett, meanwhile, raced past his half-century in just 36 balls.

Buttler won the toss and opted to bat against India in the 2nd ODI in Cuttack. Varun Chakravarthy became India's second-oldest debutant, after he replaced Kuldeep Yadav in the Playing XI. Rohit Sharma also announced the return of Virat Kohli, which caused a huge roar in the stadium. The one to go out was Yashasvi Jaiswal. Shreyas Iyer keeps his place after impressing in the series opener the other evening.

It can be easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to the first game of a series of any length, and that is especially true when the series lies on the eve of a major upcoming tournament. From that lens, India would be extremely pleased with their clinical display in Nagpur, with both bat and ball, easing past England in a game that looked fairly lopsided by the end of it. Equally, sirens will be ringing for an England team that has looked hapless throughout their white ball tour of India, with spin continuing to be the great undoer on both sides of the ball.

But things change quickly in cricket. The second ODI of this series in Cuttack’s Barabati Stadium presents India a chance to seal the series and keep their positive momentum going, but equally, a loss is just as likely to put the cat amongst the pigeons and raise warning signals within an Indian camp which is yet to quite find their identity under new coach Gautam Gambhir. More of the same will be the expectation from India, especially against an England unit which hasn’t been as impressive or cohesive as those of the past as they undergo a period of transition.

India will have a couple of positive takeaways that could prove to be key heading to the UAE for their portion of the ICC Champions Trophy. The bowling combination, at least in terms of balance, seems to be pitch-perfect if conditions are relatively slow, which they tend to be in the UAE. Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel act as a cog in the middle of the team that will provide quality, controlled spin through the middle overs, allowing a more attacking spinner like Kuldeep Yadav to operate alongside them. Crucially, however, the bowling form and endurance of Hardik Pandya means that they can still bat all the way to number eight, which Gambhir sees as a staple of his teams across formats, operating with just two frontline seamers.

On the batting front, Shreyas Iyer must be seen as a can’t-lose player at number four. Shreyas claimed after his belligerent half-century in the first ODI that he was the batter likely to miss out, but was hitting and timing the ball to an extent that he could be a gamechanging player in that role. If Virat Kohli does return, it raises the question of which batter sits out — and with Shubman Gill continuing his great touch in ODI cricket, it looks likely that the answer will be Yashasvi Jaiswal, just after his debut. A tough call against the youngster, but it is only a matter of time for his kind of talent.

The one major question of concern: what is going on with Rohit Sharma? The captain has just not been able to find runs of any kind in red-ball cricket, and his woes continued in his favourite format as he chipped a nothing half-volley on his legs straight into the air in the first ODI. Rohit has more than enough credit in the bank when it comes to ODI cricket, but Indian fans will want desperately to see that version of Rohit back on the field for the men in blue, replacing this off-colour version of the last few months.

On the English front, there will be some ringing concerns as they continue to struggle to deal with scoring runs against spin. There were some reasons for optimism: Phil Salt looked in good touch and full flow before he was out to a miscommunication while running between the wickets, and if not for that, the story could have been very different. More will be expected of Harry Brook, who has been largely quiet on this tour outside of one fantastic innings, while positive signs were also shown by Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell.

With the ball, Saqib Mahmood and Jofra Archer were impressive to begin with, but once Shreyas Iyer took the attack, there seemed to be few answers that Buttler was able to find in terms of stemming the run flow. This has been an issue throughout for England: when Indian batters hit their stride, they have been incapable of clotting it, outside of perhaps Adil Rashid. England fans will want to see more creativity and proactive thinking from their leadership group in that matter, with there being plenty of such batters in the Champions Trophy who can hurt them with some big hitting, particularly against the relatively timid secondary spinner options they present in the lineup they went with in Nagpur. They just seem to be a spinner short in their squad, meaning the pacers need to step up.

India start off as strong favourites to go up 2-0 in this series in Cuttack, on a ground that has seen fireworks between this pair of teams in the past. There aren’t any major concerns in terms of team composition or balance for the hosts: as much as anything, this will just be an opportunity for some polishing, for players in the team to play themselves into form heading into the Champions Trophy.

Click here to read article