England looking to bounce back after heavy defeat

The third One Day International gets underway on Saturday August 30th at Trent Bridge, where England (odds-on favourites at 4/5) will have to come from behind against India once again.

Alastair Cook’s men were soundly beaten by 133 runs at Cardiff’s Swalec Stadium to go 1-0 down with three to play at the hands of an Indian team, who are much more comfortable with one day cricket.

India’s aggressive batting line up flourishes in the shorter form of the game as much as they suffer at Test level with the recalled Suresh Raina scoring a fantastic hundred off just 75 deliveries. Due to this crushing victory, India are evens to win at Trent Bridge and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

Ex-England spinner turned pundit Graeme Swann has angered his former teammate Cook by suggesting the England captain should step down from the ODI role.

Speaking ahead of the Cardiff match, Swann said: “I love Cookie dearly, but I don’t think he should be bothering playing one-day cricket anymore… [Cook’s] not the guy who should be opening the batting in one-day cricket for England.”

After the defeat, Cook denied he will step down and expressed his disappointment at Swann’s comments claiming that “it’s not helpful… I am going to be captain in this World Cup.” At 7/2 to top score at Trent Bridge, Cook will be hoping he makes Swann eat his words.

Warwickshire’s (AKA Birmingham Bears) T20 Finals day hero Chris Woakes will go to Nottingham with great confidence. He took the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in the same over to reduce India to 19-2 early on and, in his later spell, he claimed both centurion Raina and captain MS Dhoni to claim impressive figures of 4-52. With conditions at Trent Bridge usually helpful for bowlers, Woakes is 4/1 to carry on his form and end up leading wicket taker for England here.

However, the form of Chris Jordan is a huge cause for concern. Even though the Sussex man took 4-18 in his last Test innings, he lacked the kind of rhythm that earned him 5-29 against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford earlier in the Summer. His figures suffered as he returned 0-73 off his 10 overs at Cardiff with an astonishing 12 wides being bowled (including five in one over). To top his match off, Jordan recorded a two-ball duck and must be looking over his shoulder with Nottinghamshire’s left arm seamer Harry Gurney itching to play on his home ground.