England vs India, 2018: 5 Player battles to watch out for

After the end of an exciting T20I series, the carnival now shifts to the 50-over version of the game as India and England lock horns once again in a three-match series which begins at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Thursday.

India does have a few changes in the 50-over squad from the 20-over version with Shreyas Iyer replacing Manish Pandey and also Axar Patel returning to the squad, thereby providing the finger spin option and it will be interesting to see if both get to play at any point in the series.

England, too, have a few changes from the squad that played the T20Is with Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan not featuring in the 50-over party.

The T20I series saw quite a few player battles between players in both sides. One can hope for more of the same in the ODIs.

Here are five player battles to look forward to from the series:

#1 Umesh Yadav vs Jason Roy

The early exchanges usually decide the fate of an innings and the contest between Umesh Yadav and Jason Roy will be an important one. In the T20I series, in the matches played both at Old Trafford and Bristol, the right-hander put the pressure on the Indian bowlers from the word-go to push them on the backfoot.

In order to stop him from that, India will bank on Yadav to do the early damage. The fast bowler dismissed Roy twice in the T20I series, both times bowled, by keeping it wicket-to-wicket, not giving any room to free his arms.

Barring the game at Bristol, where almost every Indian bowler suffered the brunt of playing on a ground with very small boundaries, Umesh has shown good control with the ball, even showing that he can get the ball in the blockhole in the death overs during the second T20I at Cardiff.

On Thursday though, his job will be to prevent Roy from getting off to a flier and the hosts will hope the opener can set the tone early on once again in the innings.