Rampaging India aim to seal series

Cuttack: During the five-Test series before the New Year's, England made totals of 537, 400 and 477 and failed to beat India.

What would hurt the Eoin Morgan-led team was the fact that they dominated a majority of the match and yet could find a way of applying the finishing touches. They allowed the Indian team escape from a real tight corner and hence would be gutted at the end of the match.

However, everything did not go according to plan for Virat Kohli's boys, and the bowlers, in particular, received a real pasting, and thus the management should take a look at the combination in the coming matches.

In the first ODI last Sunday in Pune, England made 350 and lost with Virat Kohli and Kedar Jadhav making batting look ridiculously easy from the depths of 63/4.

Since that stunning victory led by Kohli and Jadhav, both teams had to remain in Pune to train owing to a scheduling conflict, and there have been plenty of comments from both camps about the partnership the two batsmen had in the series opener.

England will have to be on the money to curb Kohli, Jadhav and the other big Indian batsmen, and the reported dew factor at Cuttack's Barabati Stadium could be crucial.

According to the head curator, the dew begins to come into play by 5:30pm IST and work is one to negate it.

For India, Shikhar Dhawan's comeback innings was worth one run off ten balls, and it is likely that he makes way for Ajinkya Rahane, who scored a fluent 91 when leading India A against an England XI last week.

Yuvraj Singh's first ODI in over three years produced 15 runs, but the two fours and six that he hit were indication that he's got something to offer.

Umesh Yadav conceded 63 runs in seven overs in Pune, and may be benched in favour of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and in spin department Amit Mishra may me replace senior Ashwin.

On otherhand, England, Adil Rashid was pasted in India's spectacular chase of 351, bleeding 50 runs in five overs. Should he be dropped, Liam Dawson would step right in.

England's batsmen did little wrong in posting 350 for 7, wth only Alex Hales failing with 9 off 18 balls.

Teams from

India: Virat Kohli (Capt.), R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Ajinkya Rahane, Lokesh Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Yuvraj Singh

England: Eoin Morgan (Capt.), Moneen Ali, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jake Ball, Ssam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes

Stats and trivia

• MS Dhoni needs three sixes to complete 200 sixes in One-day International.
• The last time an ODI was played at the venue in 2014, India racked up 363/5 and hammered Sri Lanka by 169 runs for a 5-0 sweep.

Pitch and conditions
Early dew may be a factor in the toss at Cuttack's Barabati Stadium.

Match facts
Thursday January 19, 2017 (d/n)
Start time 1330 local (0800 GMT)