India vs England highlights, 1st ODI: IND beat ENG by 6-wickets and take 1-0 lead in Birmingham

Sam Curran has been the pick of the bowlers for England. Although he has only picked up one wicket through the day, he has looked pretty sharp. He has kept the batters guessing with his variations, bowled a cutter, followed it up with an orthodox left-arm seam up and then a sharp bumper. He is a pretty good cricketer. On his day can do what Axar Patel has done for India today. If anything, England would have liked a bit more penetration through those initial overs with Tongue and Archer. To be fair, that was their only chance to win this game with the amount of spinners they have picked for this game; they have hamstrung themselves. Another seamer through the middle overs in this game might have looked slightly different.

Jofra Archer is done for the day here. He has bowled 10 overs, 1/60. He bowled a little better than his figures suggested; it was more of that penultimate over, which did take a bit of toll on his economy rate. Apart from them, he has bowled quickly, hit his lengths and looked threatening. If anything, he would want to develop or show a delivery with the new ball that takes the ball away from Rohit and Gill. And it was also pretty impressive how Brook has used him. He gave him five overs up front and brought him back for a burst when Iyer came in, and before it is too late, Brook threw the last dice.

The partnership between Axar and Sundar is growing along nicely, but England is trying hard and is at arm's length. The bowlers are giving their all, and the fielders are going that extra mile to stop the ball. Curran has bowled three overs in this spell, although he has not picked up a wicket; it was a pretty absorbing one to watch. He was mixing up his deliveries nicely, but both batters, concentrating hard enough, did not buckle under pressure. There has been just one boundary since these two joined has togther, so it has been hard work, and the good thing is both are grinding it out.

Sundar and Axar are taking a cautious approach, which might be the right thing to do because the rate is pretty much under control. Once the partnership starts growing it runs will start flowing. At this point, things have gone pretty sedate. England are pushing for that wicket as they have Sam Curran operating from one end and Will Jacks from the other. We might see Adil Rashid coming into the attack sooner rather than later as he still has seven overs left in his quota and England would not want their premium bowler to have overs remaining as India gets close to the target.

Shreyas Iyer is run out here. Washington Sundar pushed the ball and called for a single, and Iyer, instead of running, started watching the ball, and in the middle of his way, he started to change his path, and Brook hit the stumps directly and ended up short of stumps. Did Iyer? Here is the opening for England. First, it was Gill who retired through cramps, and Iyer is now run out. These are the moments which tend to change the momentum of the game. As we update, Josh Tongue has picked up KL Rahul. He tried to drive with an angled bat and got the inside edge onto the stumps. India is in big trouble here.

It is a strange captaincy move here from Harry Brook. He brought in Bethell, and then Liam Dawson came in from Adil Rashid's end. It did seem like Rashid would come from the opposite end, but instead Will Jacks has come in with two right-handers. It might be a case of him getting the longer boundary on the leg side, but neither Iyer nor Gill is going after the bowling; they are just milking it, and the way England win this game is by picking wickets. The move just does not make any sense. If Brook wants to preserve Rashid's overs till the 34th over when he gets to use only one ball, which will be older, it just might be too late, and even if a few wickets do fall, India will not panic.

A 50-run partnership has come up, and 50 for Shubman Gill has come up here too. And that over from Sam Curran too went for quite a few runs for England's liking. Things are slowly falling in favour of India here; it is turning out to be one of those run chases Indians are quite used to seeing with Virat Kohli leading the way, but it seems like the prince is slowly, steadily and successfully taking that mantle on his head. The 50 would not be good enough for him; he would want to make this into a three-digit score and see India home to take a 1-0 lead.

We have reached the first water break of this innings, and it has been India's passage. Shubman Gill has batted pretty nicely in this chase. He started aggressively up top, punishing anything which was off the mark from the English bowlers, which tends to put a lot of pressure on them, especially when the premium is put on picking wickets. They would want a few freebies so as not to be scored off. However, they did manage to have some success as they picked up the wickets of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who are the batters the majority of the Indian crowd have come to watch.

Shreyas Iyer has walked into the middle. He has been in good form in recent times and has played a few good innings in the T20I series despite the struggles from others. Today, he does not have the burden of the captaincy and walks in at a pretty good time, and there are not too many runs to chase. Archer, too, is done with his opening burst, so runs are there to be had for Iyer. He has Gill batting like a dream at the other end, setting an example on how to bat in these conditions. He scored twin hundreds last year when India was here. It will be interesting to see when Brook turns to his spinners. He was quite proactive in using them in the T20I series, and we have not seen any so far.

England has got the breakthrough here, and it is Sam Curran who has picked up the wicket. Rohit charged down the trick and tried to hit the ball on the off-side, but could not get any timing on the ball and ended up giving a catch to the mid-off fielder. It was a good opportunity for Rohit to take some time as Gill was playing well, and chasing is not that hard if he had spent some time in the middle, runs would have come easily. Nevertheless, not today. Virat Kohli is the new batter who has walked into the middle. He will be eyeing a big score here in the middle.

There is a clear swing and seam on offer in the air to both Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue here, but they need to push that ball both ways. At this point, it is Archer who is pushing the ball into the batter's, and there is Tongue who is taking it away. Either of them, if they can go the opposite way, would put the batters in a lot of trouble. Tongue to Gill did try bowling one in, but he missed his mark by quite a bit and ended up bowling five wides. This new ball spell is everything for England if they do not pick at least two wickets with this new ball, this game is as good as gone for them.

Both the Indian openers are walking into the middle, Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma. England's chance of winning this game is by picking up wickets with the new ball. Both Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue will get something out of this surface with the pace they have got and the natural lengths they will hit with the new ball. It comes down to how the experience of Indian batting will handle this.

The signs were there long before the wickets came. Jasprit Bumrah‘s opening spell at Edgbaston yielded nothing on the scoreboard, but it had everything else – pace that kept climbing, movement through the air, relentless accuracy and an England top order scrambling for answers. By the time the breakthroughs arrived, the damage had already been done.

Facing most of the brunt and remaining unscathed was Ben Duckett. Of the four overs, he alone faced 19 deliveries, scoring 7. But it was in those remaining 16 deliveries that Bumrah showed why he remains the best all-format bowler in the current era. (Read more from Venkata Krishna B)

Axar Patel has got the final two wickets of Adil Rashid and Josh Tongue. One was a stump out, and the other was Tongue getting clean bowled. He ended up with four wickets here. A very good spell from him. Joe Root, meanwhile, has remained unbeaten in the innings with 76 runs. He has played a very good hand in helping England to get 258 runs, which is a decent total, but they will need to bowl well. The majority of the damage was done early on when the seamers went on a spree of picking wickets. A passage which saw Gurnoor Brar pick two wickets in one over, Prasidh Krishna do the same, and Jasprit Bumrah get the all-important wicket of Harry Brook. The surface nibbled for quite a long time in that innings till the 34th over, when the fielding team has to choose one ball to continue with. It is going to be an interesting chase. Do join us for the second innings.

Axar Patel has gotten the breakthrough here. It was a delivery which was short and there to hit, which Dawson did, but he pulled it too fine for his liking, and Rohit completed the catch. It does seem like he misread the pace of the delivery as it came quicker to him. England were looking like they were getting a move on in that innings, a timely wicket, and 280 once again looks a bit too far now. From the other end, Prasidh is done with his spell. He has got two wickets, both in a single over, but he did have a good day. He started well with the new ball and ended well too.

This partnership between Root and Dawson continues to frustrate India. There was a chance given by Root when he was on five when he gave a return catch to Shivam Dube, which the bowler dropped. It was a pretty straightforward catch, and England would have been in a further hole, but since that moment, Root has been top-notch with the way he has been batting in the middle. Now he too has started to up the tempo and within no time England are looking good for 280, which will be a very competitive total on this surface, and given it is a day game, the conditions will not be too different in the second innings. Archer and Tongue will get something with the new ball.

A 100 partnership has come between Liam Dawson and Joe Root here. This is turning out to be a game-changing partnership. Will this help England win this game? We have to see. But credit must be given to these two for the way they have batted. Root too is now closing in on his half-century, and once he gets to his landmark, we might see both the batters going after the bowling. At this point, it is Dawson who is showing a bit more intent in the middle. He is sweeping and slog-sweeping. As we update, Root has reached his half-century. How many times have we seen him do this for England?

Both the spinners have got something from this surface, the odd ball has turned quite sharply, which might justify England's selection a bit. Both Sundar and Axar have been quite tidy with the way they are operating in the middle, but India will want to break this partnership between Dawson and Root. Dawson, especially, has out-scored Root and is looking in pretty good touch. England have Archer to come next, who can hit the long ball, but he just might not be capable enough to build another partnership. So from England's perspective, they would want this partnership to go till the 44-45th over, which will give them a chance to get to 250.

We had the second water break, and India is in a completely dominant position in this game. The challenge for them here is not to let this partnership between Dawson and Root get away with a partnership and take England to around 220 or so, which will give England a fighting chance and a bit of momentum. However, the problem England has is that they are a fast bowler short for these conditions to trouble India. They have Archer and Tongue, who will enjoy these conditions, but after that, they have Sam Curran, who is more of a death over specialist, and the rest of the options are spinners. They could have been tempted to go with another seamer in these conditions.

This is a nice partnership brewing between Dawson and Root here. They have benefited from the fact that India did take their foot of a paddle for a bit here, trying to get through the overs of the fifth and fourth bowler. Dube is now into his fifth over in a row here. He has bowled pretty tidily and picked up the wicket of Jacks, which is a massive bonus. There was quite a bit of speculation about how India would have gone through the middle overs in the absence of Kuldeep Yadav or any wrist spinner to pick wickets for that matter, and they have shown how they were about to go about. Axar Patel has come into attack from the other end.

Shivam Dube has picked up the wicket of Will Jacks here. That is a cracking delivery from the bowler. The ball was pitched around off-stump to start with, which is always an area to bowl, and that did take off as it went, and the outside edge carried to KL Rahul, who took a lovely catch behind the stumps, diving to his right. One thing which has been very good to watch in this series has been the wickets have been neutral, neither too bowler-friendly or batting-friendly, and the teams which have planned and executed well have got their rewards. We saw that in the T20I series, and so far, 23 overs in this ODI, it seems to be not too different.

One admirable thing about India today is the way they have rotated their bowlers, especially seamers. There was a lot of movement early on, and Gill did not hesitate to take off Bumrah from the attack after that initial spell of bowling just four overs, and it was the same with Prasidh. Brar did take a bit of pasting in his first couple of overs and instead of taking him out of the attack he swapped the ends giving him a longer boundary to left-handers on the leg-side who were batting at the time in Duckett and Bethell and the move worked as the short deliveries took the wickets and then as soon the cream of the England middle-order with Brook and Root in the middle he went back to Bumrah who delivered. Then came back Krishna to continue the pressure, and he too picked wickets. Extraordinary stuff this.

That was a cracking delivery from Bumrah he did go past the edge with the new-ball but that delivery to Brook came back in with the angle but it bounced and moved away at the last moment and Brook who would have thought of playing his shot for the incoming delivery followed it up as soon as it started to move away and the followed the bounce and edge it to the slip Rohit Sharma. This is a very good passage for India; they have picked up three wickets. England, who seemed like they had gotten out of jail, have gotten themselves into trouble yet again.

England has seen the new ball here, and India has turned to Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar. One of the things that will be interesting to see here for India is how they will be forcing those wickets through the middle overs. When they do have the option of Kuldeep Yadav, they do tend to attack quite well in the middle overs, and the wrist spinner, by virtue of his ability to spin the ball both ways, even on good flat wickets, was able to pick wickets. But today India has two finger spinners and Dube, who has to enforce that wicket which is not going to be an easy ask. And India has more things to ponder upon with the Brar has started. As we update, Brar has got the wicket, Bethell.

Gurnoor Brar has come into the attack here. This is a good proactive move from Shubman Gill. At times in the past, we have seen him wait a little longer to bring in that bowling change, but today, after a three-over spell, he has removed Krishna from the attack and brought in Brar. The advantage of using those short, sharp spells with the new ball is that all the seamers tend to get their opportunity with the ball and will be able to make use of the conditions. However, Duckett has had other plans in that of over-squeezing 17 runs in the over that just might be the breakthrough over England needed in this first powerplay.

We have a slight delay here, one Bumrah's delivery stood up and hit the glove of Duckett, which seems to have hurt his finger. He looked in plenty of discomfort and continued to play the over, and now he is getting some treatment for the hand. Bumrah does bowl at a decent clip, and these balls are quite hard in ODI cricket when new. Krishna, who has started from the other end, is quite good at hitting those hard lengths early on and extracting any seam movement on offer. The one thing with him which can be improved is trying to push that oddball further up to make the batter drive. A sucker ball which can take them by surprise. A famous tactic James Anderson deployed throughout his career.

It is an unusually sunny day here in Edgbaston; however, Varun Aaron, in his pitch report, noted a bit of moisture on the surface. That moisture will help the Indian new ball bowlers if they are going to hit their mark. England, on the other hand, does have a new opener from the T20I series in Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell, who batted in the middle, will get his slot at the top of the order.

[On losing the toss and bowling first] Actually, we're looking to bowl first. [On India's preparation after the T20Is] Well, I think most of the boys have been playing the T20s and the rest of the boys we got a bit of rest, I had a bit of training. Got here a couple of days before, so we were practicing. So the environment, the vibe has been really good. [On the importance of the series with the 2027 World Cup in mind] Important series for us, the conditions that we're going to get here would be a little bit more similar to South Africa as compared to where most of the time we play in India. So in that context, the combination, what kind of different combination we can try and some of the players, who haven't had that much experience in this format especially, would get some game time. So it will be really good for us. [On the return of the senior players] Yeah, definitely most of the seniors are back. We have got Virat Bhai, Rohit Bhai, KL and Boom back to the squad. So the experience is going to be massive for us. [On leading India again in England] Yeah, very excited for the series, have some really good memories in this venue particularly. So hopefully we're going to add into that. [On the playing XI] So apart from the usual, we have got four seamers, with Dube and then we've got two spinners, Axar and Washi.

Jacob Bethell, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook(c), Jos Buttler(w), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Josh Tongue, Adil Rashid

IND to bowl first vs ENG as focus remains on Rohit, Virat in Birmingham