India will take on England in the first of the three-match ODI series at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Thursday. The hosts have already won the five-match T20I series 4-1.

India’s captain, Rohit Sharma, and senior batter, Virat Kohli, will return to international cricket after a forgettable Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Both players, who struggled during India’s recent tour of Australia, are under intense scrutiny as India begins its preparations for the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025.

The return of the senior duo is crucial as they are set to play in the format that has helped define their careers. Kohli, with 13,906 runs, currently ranks third on the all-time list, just behind Kumar Sangakkara’s total of 14,234 runs. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, with 10,866 runs, is poised to surpass Rahul Dravid’s tally of 10,889, needing just 24 more runs to break into the top 10 list.

The two players reached the pinnacle of their ODI careers under the coaching of Rahul Dravid between 2022 and 2024. Their aggressive approach, which led to India’s dominant performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup, was one of the highlights of that period. However, despite their efforts, India fell short in the final, losing to Australia.

Since that loss in the 2023 World Cup final, India has played the fewest number of ODI matches, with just six in total. Three of these were against South Africa in December 2023, when a second-string Indian team toured the country, and the remaining three were in August 2024 against Sri Lanka, where India suffered a 0-2 series defeat.

Ahead of the first match in Nagpur, Rohit Sharma spoke about the challenges of returning to ODI cricket after such a long gap. He acknowledged that it might be difficult for the team to replicate the aggression and performance from the 2023 World Cup.

“There is a certain style and brand of cricket we want to play. Whether that means replicating what we did in the World Cup, we will try to do that. But the World Cup was one and a half years ago, so we need to regroup and assess what is required for this series,” said Rohit Sharma in the pre-series press conference.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.