Kolkata ODI: India win toss, elect to bowl first

India have won the toss and opted to bowl first in the third and the final dead-rubber ODI against England at the iconic Eden Gardens here on Sunday.

After winning the toss, newly-appointed India's limited-overs skipper Virat Kohli said, "Pretty decent surface. Won't change too much. It's always been a good chasing ground, quick outfield, ball travels in the air quickly and the dew as well. There's nothing like keeping winning games. Its important to create good habits and sustain them. It's about being ruthless. There has been dew, not too early in the evening, but dew is a massive factor in the last 15 overs. That means you can get settled."

 

England skipper Eoin Morgan, on the other hand, said that although they have been quite competitive with the bat so far, his bowlers are yet to hit their straps.

"Most grass I've seen on a Kolkata wicket.We've been very competitive, lot of strong points from the two games before. Our batters have performed really well but our bowlers haven't quite hit their straps. Haven't played a complete game yet. Scoring 350 as a side in the first two games puts the batsmen in a good space," Morgan insisted.

As far as Playing XI is concerned, the Kohli-led side have made one change in the squad. Ajinkya Rahane has been called in place of Shikhar Dhawan.

Meanwhile, the visitors have made two changes. Sam Billings and Jonny Bairstow have been brought in place of injured Joe Root and Alex Hales.

While Team India will be aiming for a clean-sweep of the three-match ODI series, England will be hoping to salvage their pride before heading into the T20Is series

India, under the captainship of Kohli, have won the first two one-dayers convincingly beating the visitors in high scoring matches in Pune and Cuttack.

After the final ODI, India will then host a three-match T20 series against England beginning January 26 at Green Park, Kanpur.

India Playing XI: Ajinkya Rahane, Lokesh Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni(w), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah.

England Playing XI: Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan(c), Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler(w), Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, Jake Ball, David Willey.