The three matches will be played in Pune between March 23 and 28
M Prasidh Krishna is the brand new face in the Indian ODI squad, which was named on Friday morning for the upcoming three-match series against England. The 18-member squad also includes Suryakumar Yadav, who made a rousing start to his international career with a match-winning half-century in the fourth T20I against England on Thursday, which helped India pull level with one game to go. The ODIs will be played in Pune on March 23, 26 and 28.
The last time India played ODIs, in Australia late last year, the squad had Mayank Agarwal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Manish Pandey, Navdeep Saini and Sanju Samson, all of whom are missing from the line-up this time. Rohit Sharma, who was back in India before linking up with the squad during the Test series in Australia, is back in the frame now, as the designated vice-captain, while Rishabh Pant, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Siraj have also been drafted in.
Krishna, the 25-year-old quick from Karnataka, has had limited exposure in days’ cricket – just nine first-class games since his debut in 2015 – but has been a prominent name in limited-overs formats for a while, having played 48 List A games (81 wickets at an average of 23.07) and 40 T20s (33 wickets at 35.84 and an economy rate of 8.49). A part of the Kolkata Knight Riders set-up since 2018, Krishna has played 24 games for the franchise in the IPL, returning 18 wickets with an economy rate of 9.33.
There was talk of Krishna being in the national frame, especially for the shortest format, last year when Virat Kohli had said that the young bowler “could possibly be an X-factor” for India in the run-up to the T20 World Cup, which ended up being postponed because of Covid-19. It is scheduled to be played later this year, in October-November, in India.
India squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur
More to follow…