More than just reputation on the line as England bid to tame Kuldeep Yadav in second ODI against India
England looked anything but the best ranked side in the world on Thursday as Kuldeep’s haul of six for 25 set up a worryingly easy eight-wicket win for India
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Your support makes all the difference.For England the challenge for tomorrow’s second one-day international at Lord’s is not only getting to grips with the left-arm wrist spin of Kuldeep Yadav but also restating their claims of being the best side in the world.
They looked anything but at Trent Bridge on Thursday as Kuldeep’s haul of six for 25 – the best-ever return by a spinner in ODIs in England – set up a worryingly easy eight-wicket win for India.
Lose at Lord’s and not only will Eoin Morgan’s team be stripped of their No 1 ranking but perhaps they will lose much of the self-belief and confidence that has been a hallmark of their revival since the last World Cup in 2015.
Just 11 months out from the next tournament here in England, this would be a bad time for this side to suffer such a grievous setback. Yet the impact of another defeat could have consequences beyond one-day cricket.
Put simply: Lord’s could be the most pivotal game of the whole summer, setting the tone for the five-Test series that begins early next month.
If Kuldeep can be tamed, then those England players who straddle both formats can approach the Tests with confidence.
Among them Joe Root, England’s Test captain, is the most in need of runs. Dismissed by Kuldeep in both innings he has faced the Indian – in the Manchester T20 last week and at Trent Bridge on Thursday – Root knows he needs to find a way of countering the unique challenge posed by the left-arm wrist spinner.
Root’s form has tailed off in recent weeks, his score of three in Nottingham the eighth successive innings he has failed to post a half-century.
With the first Test starting at Edgbaston in just over three weeks’ time, Root doesn’t have long to rediscover his golden touch. Indeed, it is likely that England will need him to lead by example with a deluge of runs if they are to beat India over the course of five Tests.
Steve Smith did that for Australia in last winter’s Ashes, showing up Root’s inability to have a similar positive impact on his own team. Having failed to win a Test series since West Indies came here at the back end of last summer, Root also knows victory against India is necessary to shore up his own future as captain.
Series defeats in Australia and New Zealand last winter evaporated any credit he had from the wins against South Africa and West Indies in his debut summer in the job. The victory against Pakistan at Headingley in June that gave England a 1-1 share of that series at least alleviated the immediate pressure on Root following a run of eight Tests without a win.
But the battle Virat Kohli, his opposite number, in the India Tests promises to hold the key to the rest of this summer and England need Root to deliver. Having been dropped for England’s T20 decider against India in Bristol last weekend, Root’s place in the one-day team is far from assured either.
But thanks to a side strain sustained by Alex Hales – and which will keep the Nottinghamshire batsman out for around a month – Root will have the final two ODIs of the summer to score runs, restore confidence and restate his position in the 50-over team.
Root, along with Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, will come up against Kuldeep again in the Tests. India are yet to name their squad for that series but given England’s travails against Kuldeep it would be remarkable if they didn’t pick the 23-year-old.
England struggling against spin is not a new thing – just look at the back-to-back tours of Bangladesh and India two years ago. Or the Test series against Pakistan in the UAE the winter before that.
Yet one-day captain Morgan is confident England can counter Kuldeep at Lord’s, especially after they managed to come back following his five-wicket haul in the Manchester T20 by denying him a wicket in the following match in Cardiff.
“He is very good and there is no getting around that,” said Morgan. “He exposes an area of our game that we need to improve on and I think that is a good thing and a healthy thing. Considering there is only one left-arm [wrist-spin] bowler in the world it is not a huge concern.
“We have played great cricket for the last six months and not come up against anybody like this so it is a chance to improve on this area however long it might take between now and the World Cup.
“You have to give credit where it is due, he did bowl well and we need to clarify our plans, commit to them and just be better. I think Lord’s will be similar to Cardiff in that regard so the shift will be important. But that doesn’t paper over the fact that we need to get better at playing him.”
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