Rishabh Pant replaces Shreyas Iyer: Virat Kohli confirms at the toss
Indian captain Virat Kohli has confirmed that Rishabh Pant will be replacing the injured Shreyas Iyer in the team for the second ODI against England.
Iyer injured his shoulder while fielding in the first ODI and has been ruled out of the series. There were reports that Suryakumar Yadav would be handed his one-day debut in Iyer’s place. However, Virat Kohli sprang a surprise yet again.
Speaking after losing the toss and being sent into bat, Virat Kohli asserted that they would have anyway batted first. The Indian skipper explained:
“We actually wanted to bat again, conditions play a big part. The development of a team is all about that, you have to be ready to do whatever happens in the toss. That's why we wanted to put ourselves in a similar situation even if we won the toss.”
India lost the toss in the first ODI as well. Sent into bat, they posted 317 for 5 on the board. After a rollicking start by England's openers gave them a scare, India defended the total with ease in the end.
Except for middle overs, happy with batting: Virat Kohli
The Indian skipper added losing quick wickets in the middle overs in the first ODI was a bit of a worry. Keeping that aside, he is pleased with the team’s batting.
Virat Kohli said:
“Outside of that middle overs period where we lost 3-4 wickets, pretty happy with our batting.”
On the bowlers’ fightback after being hammered in the first 15 overs, the Indian skipper stated:
“The chat in the field was to keep the belief, doesn't matter if we lose in 40 overs.”
Jos Buttler is leading the England side with Eoin Morgan being ruled out due to injury. He said that they did reasonably well in the first ODI, keeping aside the batting collapse.
“We played good cricket for large parts of the last game, but let ourselves down in the end. We've tried to play that way for a long period of time and it's given us great success, so we'll continue to go in that fashion,” Buttler asserted.
He also admitted that filling Morgan's shoes is a huge responsibility but it gives someone else an opportunity and him the chance to lead.
England have made three changes to their squad - Dawid Malan for Morgan, Liam Livingstone for Sam Billings and Reece Topley for Mark Wood.