The first ODI of the three-match series between India and England was played at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on February 6, 2025. Jos Buttler of England won the toss and chose to bat first.
India gave ODI debuts to Yashasvi Jaiswal, who replaced the injured Virat Kohli in the India XI, and pacer Harshit Rana, who partnered Mohammad Shami in the pacer department.
England opened with Phil Salt and Ben Duckett and the duo played out a few quiet overs to gauge the pace and bounce of the pitch. But then Duckett opened up and hit Shami for two fours in the 5th over and then Salt hammered 3 sixes and 2 fours, taking 26 runs on Harshit Rana in the 6th over.
Salt and Duckett continued the assault as Axar Patel was hit for three fours in an over and England sat pretty on 75 runs in the 9th over. Then India pulled back things with wickets of both openers.
Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell scored the fifties as they added 59 runs for the 5th wicket. But once they got out, only Jofra Archer’s 21* was the next best score after them, as England folded for 248 runs.
For India, Harshit Rana and Ravindra Jadeja took 3 wickets each.
In reply, India lost Rohit Sharma for 2 runs and debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal made 15 runs. Then Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer got together and added 93 runs for the third wicket. Iyer made 59 in just 36 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes.
Gill then added 108 runs for the 4th wicket with Axar Patel, who was promoted. Axar made 52 runs before he was cleaned up by Adil Rashid.
Shubman Gill continued and scored 87 in 96 balls with 14 fours, getting out on the cusp of victory. India won the match in the 39th over with 4 wickets in hand.
After the match, India captain Rohit Sharma was asked about the performance of the team.
“Nothing specific. Overall as a team, I just want us to keep making sure that we keep doing the right things as often as possible. There is nothing specific that we want to try and achieve,”
“We want to try and tick every box that is there to be ticked in terms of bowling, batting and stuff like that. So (we) pretty much managed to do that today, although I felt we shouldn't have lost those wickets at the end. It would have been good, but again, guys are trying to put pressure back on the bowlers and while doing that things like this can happen,” he said.
“I'm pretty happy because we all knew that we're coming off from a long time playing this format so it was important for us to just regroup as quickly as possible and understand what is supposed to be done. This is a slightly longest format where you have time to come back into the game. When things start to go slightly away from you, it doesn't mean that it's going to keep going away.You have to try and pull things back and that is what exactly what we did,”
On Axar Patel's batting promotion, Rohit said, “We want a lefty in the middle. We know there are a couple of (England) spinners who are going to bowl into the left-handers and we wanted a left-hander to be out there. Axar, over the years now we've seen how improved he is as a cricketer especially with his bat and we got to see that again today. We were slightly under pressure at that point we needed a partnership and Gill and Axar batted really well.”
On the other hand, Player of the Match Shubman Gill said that the pitch was two paced and suited spinners.
“I was just trying to be positive. I thought there was something in it for the pacers with the new ball. It was a good call on his part (to attack). I think the pull I hit when was batting around 70 was my favorite. Pitch was a bit two-paced when the spinners bowled. We tried to score the square of the wicket. I just want to take how Rohit bhai is thinking and then give whatever inputs I have. He has asked me not to hesitate in giving inputs,” Shubman Gill said.
The second ODI between the two sides will be played on February 9, Sunday in Cuttack.
