India, riding high on confidence, will look to wrap up another series on their ongoing tour of the United Kingdom when they face England for the second One-day International at the Lord's cricket ground on Saturday. On the other hand, the struggling hosts will be hoping to find a way to tackle the marauding Kuldeep Yadav, who wreaked havoc during England's 8-wicket loss at Trent Bridge on Thursday. With only a day's gap between the two matches, it hasn't worked out in England's favour, who have their task cut out once again as they trail the three-match series by a margin of 0-1. In conditions resembling those in Manchester, in terms of a dry pitch, the English batsmen failed to comprehend Kuldeep's wrist spin. Like at Old Trafford, he was also helped by the breeze blowing across the ground and gained drift, bamboozling the batsmen to pick his best figures in ODI cricket.
Unlike in the T20I series, England do not have the option of battling this phenomenon with a practice outing against the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn. With both teams travelling to London on Friday, there might not even be enough time to sit down for some video analysis. In that light, the English batsmen will have to contend mentally with how to play Yadav tomorrow. It will be easier said than done. Some of it is down to shot selection. At 70-odd for no loss after 10 overs, Jason Roy didn't need to play the two reverse sweeps in two overs against the wrist spinners, the second resulting in his dismissal. Skipper Eoin Morgan didn't play the best shot against Yuzvendra Chahal either. Yadav outfoxed both Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, with the latter in particular looking all at sea. (LIVE SCORECARD)
Live Updates of India vs England 2nd ODI, straight from Lord's cricket ground, London.
It has been a poor ten days for Root, and England's prime batsman for the summer is looking bereft of any confidence. This was the third time in three innings that he was out to wrist spin, falling to googlies in the two T20Is he played. A sharp leg break did the job at Trent Bridge, in what is quickly becoming a problem for Root. A school of thought suggests that Jos Buttler could be elevated in the batting order once again. He looked the most composed amongst English batsmen and extended his good run of form to get another half-century under his belt, albeit batting too low at number six. With the wrist spinners deployed in tandem, Morgan had admitted that batting against the new ball was their best chance to deny India. This could inspire a promotion for Buttler to number three.
