Mar 26: India vs England, 2nd ODI, Pune

Pro Tip: Nobody has scored more ODI runs than Virat Kohli in Pune - 375 runs in five games at a strike rate of 94.22. Make sure you have him as one of the captaincy choices for this game.

Our XI: Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Jason Roy, Suryakumar Yadav, Ben Stokes, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Adil Rashid

Substitutes: Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Liam Livingstone, Mark Wood

Player availability: Shreyas Iyer, Rohit Sharma, Sam Billings and Eoin Morgan all suffered injuries in the last ODI. Among them, Iyer, Morgan and Billings have been sidelined from this game.

We might not always be able to tip you off about late injury (or other relevant) updates, so please finalise your team after the toss.

Captain: Virat Kohli

The world's number one ODI batsman and Indian captain Kohli has been in sublime form in ODIs recently scoring six 50-plus scores in his last nine innings. If Rohit Sharma misses out this game, expect Kohli to step up and the elusive missing hundred can be achieved in this game. His last six scores against England are 56, 66, 71, 45, 75 and 55.

Vice-captain: Bhuvneshwar Kumar

India might have multiple reasons to be happy in the white-ball tour of this series, but the most important one must the form of comeback man Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He was the most economical bowler in the T20I series conceding at 6.38. Since 2019, he has been the Indian bowler with the best average - 23.25, while picking up 35 wickets in 20 games.

Hot Picks

Jonny Bairstow: After a poor Test series and moderate T20I series, Jonny Bairstow started the ODI series with a bang scoring 94 runs off 66 deliveries which included seven sixes. Since 2019, he has been the top run scorer for England in this format with 1284 runs at a strike rate of 104.47. His ODI batting average of 47.84 is the best among all English batters in the current squad.

Ben Stokes: The No.4 ranked ODI allrounder has been in sublime touch in the format recently. Although he has only showed glimpses of his batting potential in this series, he has been brilliant with the bat for England averaging 55.38 and scoring 720 runs in ODIs since 2019. In the four ODIs he has played in India, he has also picked up eight wickets.

Shardul Thakur: Ever since the historic Gabba Test, Shardul Thakur has been flying high. He is the highest wicket taker in the limited-overs leg of this series having picked up 11 wickets in just six games so far. He has improved his batting tremendously, which was evident in the recent Vijay Hazare trophy, where he smashed a 57-ball 92 which included six sixes for Mumbai.

Differential Picks

Adil Rashid: Although the 33-year-old Rashid was a bit up and down in the recently concluded T20I series, he has been a revelation in the ODI format picking up the second most number of wickets since 2018 with 78 scalps in 53 games at an average of 32.16. In the 14 games he has played in Asia, he has picked up 20 wickets.

Suryakumar Yadav: Yadav's start in the International circuit has been nothing short of extraordinary in the T20I series and expect no less from him in the ODI series too. Since 2018 in List A cricket, he has scored 1572 runs in 38 innings at an average of 49.12 and a staggering strike rate of 122.23. In the last two T20I games against England, his scores were 57(31) and 32(17).

Alternate Scenarios

If Rohit Sharma is fit and available, he can replace KL Rahul and can be the vice-captain option.
The Pandya brothers can be swapped in your XI.
Jos Buttler and Shardul Thakur are the alternate choices for captaincy.