'˜Exposed' England are left mystified by the spin of Yadav

Captain Eoin Morgan admits England must improve when they face Kuldeep Yadav again after India demolished England at Trent Bridge.
England's Liam Plunkett is run out by MS Dohni.England's Liam Plunkett is run out by MS Dohni.
England's Liam Plunkett is run out by MS Dohni.

Rohit Sharma’s classy 137 not out and Yadav’s 6-25 helped the tourists to a thumping eight-wicket win in the opening one-day international yesterday.

England were outclassed having lost the toss and been put into bat, with Jos Buttler top-scoring with 53 in their 268 all out. In reply India cruised to 
269-2 with almost 10 overs to spare.

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They face each other again at Lord’s tomorrow in the second of the three-match series with England missing the injured Alex Hales, who has been ruled out for the series with a torn muscle in his left side.

Hales’s replacement Joe Root was one of three early victims for Kuldeep and Morgan knows England cannot afford another struggle against spin next time out.

He said: “Lord’s will be very similar to Cardiff, so the shift from ground to ground will be important, but that doesn’t paper over the fact we need to get better at playing him.

“When he does bowl well he is very good and he exposes an area of our game we need to improve on; that is a healthy thing.

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“It’s a chance to improve in this area, however long it takes, between now and the World Cup.

“He did bowl well, we need to clarify and commit to our plans and just be better.”

Morgan dismissed suggestions it was a drubbing, but admits England failed to score enough runs.

“I wouldn’t go that far, we have played games where the shoe has been on the other foot and it’s been a bigger defeat,” he said.

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“You can be exposed more when you don’t put a score on the board at a small ground. That exposed another area of our game, simply not scoring enough runs.”

England never got to grips with Kuldeep as he took apart their top order.

Yorkshire’s Root again struggled and only scored three while Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow failed to build on a solid start, both dismissed for 38 as they all fell to Kuldeep.

Ben Stokes hit 50, but the hosts’ laboured innings was a contrast to their previous ODI, in Nottingham, when England smashed a record 481 against Australia last month.

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In reply India made light work of England’s attack as Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan (40) and Virat Kohli (75) dominated – but it was Kuldeep’s six-wicket haul that had done the early damage.

Yadav said: “Luckily I got three wickets in two overs, which changed the momentum. I’m enjoying English conditions at the moment.

“I didn’t try anything new, I stuck to the basics and stuck wicket to wicket. I’m hoping for the Test call and let’s see what happens in a couple of days when they announce the team.

“All six wickets are the best ones. The first was very important, we needed a breakthrough and got that.”

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Five Tests follow the ODI series and with India’s five-day squad still to be finalised, captain Virat Kohli admitted Yadav and fellow wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal have given the selectors food for thought.

“There might be a few surprises in there,” he smiled. “Anything is possible, we still have a few days to pick the Test side. He’s making a case, so is Chahal – looking at the England batsmen struggling against them we might be tempted to do that.”