England and India are all set to square off in a three-match ODI series, starting on Tuesday (July 14) at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
On the eve of the first ODI, England opener Ben Duckett addressed a press conference, where he issued ‘short ball’ warning to India’s senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
During the T20I series, England's bowling unit aggressively used a barrage of bouncers to exploit and dismantle India's youthful batting lineup, targeting players like Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Ishan Kishan.
While acknowledging that testing world-class players like Sharma, Kohli, and Shubman Gill is a completely different challenge, Duckett stated that England will maintain tactical flexibility and test them with the short ball to see how they handle it.
“We will test them out. If they’re pretty good at it (playing the short ball), we probably won’t use the strategy as much. But I’ll be honest, I’m not sure, we might as well continue with it if we find it’s working. Certainly, our plans as a bowling group will have the leadership of Brookie (Harry Brook) as a rallying point,” Duckett told reporters.
The southpaw also discussed the challenges of facing Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in limited-overs cricket. He hopes for clear, non-swinging conditions to counter Bumrah's deadly pace and movement.
“There’re not many weaknesses (in Bumrah),” Duckett said. “It (tackling Bumrah) depends on if the ball is swinging or if the ball isn’t swinging as much. He obviously can swing the ball both ways close to 90 mile an hour, so hopefully it’s blue skies, no clouds and it doesn’t swing quite as much. That would be very helpful.”
“He’s just the type of bowler that I imagine India will use throughout the innings to try and take wickets at all times and we will have to try and combat that. I’ve only faced him in Test cricket where you don’t ultimately have to look to score very fast. There’s no pressure to score whereas in 50-over cricket, you can’t look to survive him. You’ve still got to find ways to score off him. But I think our players have faced him enough and every individual will have different plans for him,” he added.
The home team enters the 50-over leg with immense confidence after dismantling India 4-0 in the T20I series. However, Duckett admitted that ODIs will be a completely different ballgame due to major structural changes in the touring side.
“Obviously, it’s a different Indian side from the T20Is. They’ve brought in quite a few strong players, so we know that it’s going to be a really tough challenge. But a lot of our guys are playing well, so we do fancy our chances,” said Duckett.
He emphasized that England will maintain their aggressive team dynamics despite the return of Rohit and Kohli.
“Both (Virat and Rohit) are incredible players, but I don’t think we need to change our team dynamics significantly. We’ve got to stick to what we do and try to do it better than them. Ultimately, we’re not going to be fearing anyone when we go out there,” Duckett remarked.
(With TOI Inputs)
