England will be wondering what they need to do to pick up a first win against India on this tour. A victory looked certain in the first one-day international in Pune, before a Virat Kohli masterclass and a Kedar Jadhav stunner knocked the stuffing out of the visitors.
Kohli shows he is definitely an alien
All England can do is continue playing solid cricket and hope India (read Kohli) have an off day.
The problem, though, is that India do not look like having an off day in all three departments of the game, which is what England need to be able to pick up a win.
If the bowling is off rhythm, like it was in the opening match, the batting comes to the rescue.
If the top order fails, like it did in that same match, barring Kohli, the middle order put their hands up.
So far, in this series, the Test matches and the first one-dayer, India have found an answer to every question that England have posed and if it goes like this, England will soon run out of questions.
The away side, however, can take a lot of positives from the first game, chief of them being the batting, which clicked wonderfully well. The openers Jason Roy and Alex Hales gave England a strong start, there were contributions right through the batting order, before Ben Stokes took over, having some six-hitting fun.
A score of 350 is a match-winning score on most days, just not when Kohli clicks into gear and he finds an able partner at the other end. The manner in which Jadhav controlled the chase alongside Kohli was a thing of beauty, and it shows that this India team, no matter what the situation, no matter how dire the equation might seem, always believe they can win – that is a mentality that has been instilled in them by MS Dhoni and taken further forward by Kohli.
Kohli could not have asked for a better match to start off as the permanent captain of the India cricket team in all formats. The skipper, however, will know his bowling attack needs to improve, while India cannot afford to lose four wickets for little while chasing such a big score all the time.
The onus is on the openers – Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul – in particular to give India a strong start. Chasing down 350, it almost seemed like both Dhawan and Rahul were batting for a place in the playing XI rather than showing the intent necessary to chase down such a big score.
That will not do and Kohli, no doubt, would have gotten that message across. Intent, with the ball and bat is Kohli's mantra and the rest need to follow suit.
India vs England: 2nd ODI match schedule:
Date: Thursday, January 19.
Time: 1.30pm IST, 8am GMT, 3am ET, 7pm AEDT.
Venue: Barabati Stadium, Cuttack.
TV guide: India: Star Sports HD1, Star Sports 1, Star Sports HD3, Star Sports 3. UK: Sky Sports 2. Middle East: OSN Sports Cricket HD. USA and Canada: Willow TV. Australia: Fox Sports 2. New Zealand: Sky Sport 1. South Africa: SuperSport 2.
